Tuesday September 23rd 2008: The Governor has signed the state budget (around 11:30 AM) and in it he has not made cuts in IHSS for domestic and related services, the state supplement to share of cost recipients or the state participation in IHSS wages and benefits. Since January the IHSS program has been faced with proposed cuts by the Governor as he tried to close a 15.2 billion dollar budget deficit.

SSI/SSP: Most IHSS recipients receive SSI/SSP and the budget contains cuts to the SSP (the state supplement to social security) cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for October ‘08 and June ‘09. So on January 1, 2009 the SSI/SSP payment for an individual will increase from $870 to $887 and for couples $1,524 to $1,550

Since the beginning of this year our members and their clients have increased their political involvement by testifying in hearings at the Capitol, writing letters and/or emails, making phone calls and attending budget forums in their counties read story.

This is a tremendous victory for our members and the people they take care of.

Now we must maintain this level of political involvement as we shift our focus to some very important races in our counties this election season. We need to be victorious in our counties on November 4th so we do not have to fight to save IHSS year after year.

Information on the November 4th elections will be posted on this website.

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR MEMBERS AND ACTIVISTS

WHO PROTECTED THE IHSS COMMUNITY WITH

THEIR HARD WORK AND DEDICATION

Our Work to Stop

Drastic IHSS Budget Cuts in 2008

Protests and Town Hall Forums were held all over the state by home and health care providers, the disabled, elderly, and their

supporters in the business community.

THE CUTS TO IHSS

While the governor claimed his proposed cuts were not severe, those who depend on In Home Supportive Services to stay out of institutions say that these services are already at bare survival levels and further reductions will literally threaten their lives. "The state does not have the resources to support all of California’s disabled and elderly in institutions. That would also cost far more than homecare even if recipients only survived a few years," stated one Riverside homecare consumer. “Some Will Die,” Claimed Hank Lacaya an advocate for services and another opponent of budget cuts, in a town hall meeting hosted by United Domestic Workers and the Quality Home Care Coalition. Homecare providers that depend on IHSS as a main source of income have expressed concerns they may have to find other work if the cuts are approved.

ACTIONS BY UDW; LOCAL & STATEWIDE OPPOSITION

Townhall Forums and contacting legislators

United Domestic Workers, together with the Quality Homecare Coalition are holding Town Hall Forums all over the state. Left, San Diego home care providers, clients, and concerned citizens meet to discuss how they can take action.

All over California – in Butte; Los Angeles; Merced; Orange; Placer; Riverside; San Diego; San Luis Obispo; Santa Barbara, and Tulare, UDW is gathering together concerned advocates to take action on a grass roots level. Discussions take place to involve local business and community leaders as well as how to effectively contact legislators. The entire community is affected because home care providers bring federal funding in to the county and spend it with local businesses, generating more tax revenue and boosting local economies. But the most directly impacted by the proposed cuts are homecare providers and their clients. We need everyone’s help and involvement.

On May 29th the Union President, Laura Reyes and 120 UDW home care providers went to Sacramento to attend and testify at the Senate and Assembly budget committees’ hearings.

During the month of July Marianne Nelson, UDW Chapter Chair for El Dorado County put together a campaign resulting in 2117 personally written letters to legislators along with numerous phone calls. Many volunteers from El Dorado gave up so much to help in this effort: Lorie Duncan, Carl Bierman, Anna Frei, Holly Moore, Mickey Smith, Amy Day, Toni Day, Katie, Becky, and Joseph Nelson all put in many hours of hard work. Our Disabled clients Shaun, and Theresa were also involved with great pride.

On September 8th the Senate Republican Budget Proposal was defeated on the Senate Floor. UDW Chapter Vice-Chair Amy De Braga (El Dorado County) and Sam Jordan (Stanislaus), Ed Huddleston (Merced), as well as Nick Knapp (Merced) testified against the proposal, speaking for all the providers and their clients who could not be at the capital that day.

Read Story

Additional actions have taken place through statewide letter writing and email campaigns. Hundreds of homecare providers and supporters have sent thousands of letters and emails.

Report from UDW President about budget cuts


Coverage of protests and UDW forums in the media

THE BIGGER PICTURE; WHY AREN’T OUR

LEADERS FIXING THE BUDGET?

In recent and past years California has struggled with financial deficit problems causing cuts to important government services like healthcare and education. Our elected leaders do not want to openly raise taxes (which would threaten their political careers) yet they continue to slash services and programs that many would say do in fact create selective taxes on the poor and middle class. We should be asking our leaders hard questions about the fairness and diversity of California’s tax base. Interestingly, other states do not have the same fiscal problems as California. Despite pressures on the national economy, other states in comparison to California are doing quite well without dramatic cuts to government services and some even have multi-million dollar surpluses.



“We have these problems that have long been understood, but we don’t deal with them,” said Jim Mayer, executive director of California Forward, a bipartisan think tank seeking to overhaul the budget process. If we are going to fix this, we need to learn from what they have done in other places.”

Los Angeles Times, July 7, 2008

Article has extensive background information on California budget,

and comparison to other states.

THE 2008 BUDGET

CUTS THAT WERE STOPPED

*Make sure to read follow-up on this story