Latest Schwarzenegger Budget Plan Slashes In-Home Supportive Services Which Helps 408,000 Elderly, Blind or Disabled Californian

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Jovan Agee
Political and Legislative Director
United Domestic Workers of America

Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed ravaging cuts to the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), which provides personal care and domestic services enabling 408,000 California seniors and people with disabilities to remain at home safely and avoid unnecessary, expensive and unwanted institutionalization.

"Governor Schwarzenegger has failed to protect the needy, blind, disabled and aged in our communities, and has shown a total disregard for what should be a top priority of California lawmakers overseeing state spending," said Bill Young, an IHSS consumer in Sacramento County and a member of the California Senior Legislature. "To deny those in need in the name of fiscal restraint is shameful for any leader, but especially desperate for Governor Schwarzenegger, who continues to disregard the plight of low-income families across the Golden State."

IHSS is a program that provides vital services to the elderly and disabled in this State. These people are retirees, veterans, children born with birth defects and accident victims. What do you call a person who refuses to find new avenues to raise revenues and year after year proposes to dismantle programs like IHSS that ensure people a decent quality of life? The State of California calls that person Governor.

“The proposed cuts will endanger people who use the services and devastate those who provide them,” according to Deborah Doctor, legislative advocate at Protection & Advocacy, Inc. (PAI)

“The IHSS program is cost-effective: the Legislative Analyst’s Office has estimated that the state spends an average of $10,000 per IHSS consumer versus $60,000 a year for each nursing home resident”, said Trula LaCalle, Ph.D., Executive Director of California Association of Public Authorities for IHSS.

“This round of cuts shows me the utter absence of common sense and compassion in this Administration. And it proves how out of touch Arnold Schwarzenegger is with real people struggling to survive in a devastating economic downturn,” said Frances Gracechild, Executive Director of Resources for Independent Living Centers and Co-Chair of the Quality Homecare Coalition.

“I don’t understand why the Governor refuses to consider an approach that includes some revenue raising as well as targeted program cuts to non-essential services,” said Bill Powers of the California Alliance for Retired Americans.

The Governor wants to cut the program three ways: eliminating some crucial services – including food preparation - to 84,000 consumers; imposing an unaffordable share of cost on 7,100 consumers, and – in his broadest cut – slashing the state’s contribution to the wages and benefits of the people who provide home care.