HHS Network CA Blog

On Wednesday the CA Legislative Analyst’s Office released new numbers showing that California will most likely not get the $4 billion expected bump in revenue this year. Unfortunately, California looks poised to make automatic trigger cuts of between $600 million and $2.5 billion to essential health and human service programs and education.

We will hear official word on this next month from the Department of Finance. In the meantime, please educate yourself on what this means for health and human services in CA by reading theCalifornia Partnership fact sheet on trigger cuts.

Programs like developmental disability services and In-Home Supportive Services for seniors and disabled Californians could suffer $100 million cuts each, to be implemented in early 2012. You can see a media summary on the report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office here and you can read the report itself on the LAO’s website.

These potential trigger cuts come on top of the nearly $15 billion in cumulative cuts health and human services in California have suffered since 2008 – even as our troubled economy pushes need for these services to higher levels. This past legislative year, Republican legislators blocked revenue solutions in the California budget. Indeed, they even took the Grover Norquist no-tax pledge, rather than work with other legislators for reasonable revenue alternatives to the deep cuts that only hurt our communities and most vulnerable families.

Here in California we need a new approach, a new strategy to solve our budget problems. Revenue solutions are the only way to balance our budget, restore our social safety net, and steer California towards an economic recovery. We will keep you updated on budget news as it rolls out, and let you know about the actions we can all take as a network if the Department of Finance announces trigger cuts in December.