“…Additionally in the “9 California Counties” graph, among those older adult IHSS recipients with a cognitive impairment, 86.5% will lose all of their paid caregiver hours. Similarly, 94% of those living alone, along with 90.9% of those who are unable to shop for their own food without substantial assistance, and 89.9% of those aged 80 and over will lose all their hours…”
Read Full Study

Doug Moore. Modesto Bee

In your Feb. 14 editorial (“ Limit in-home care; don’t eliminate it “), you correctly pointed out that the In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) home re program is our state’s fastest growing social service program. But you failed to explain why: It is humane. IHSS allows nearly a half-million low-income elderly, blind and disabled Californians to be cared for in the comfort and safety of their own homes by people they know and trust. It is obvious that most of them would choose that over nursing home care… It makes economic sense. Allowing people to remain in their own homes means that they and their caregivers contribute to the local economy… It reflects the growth of the elderly population in California. As our citizens grow older, we need to adapt our public services to meet their needs…more
Read Story & Comment

James Perry, Attorney.

An Alameda Superior Court judge decided this month not every felony conviction will disqualify you from helping the elderly or disabled. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger originally wanted to ban everyone with a felony record from working in the In-Home Supportive Services program (IHSS). As the law stands, workers are barred from the program for 10 years if they have been convicted of child abuse, elder abuse, or defrauding MediCal or any patient.
Read Story

Dave Downy. The Californian 

Officials say ‘trial balloon’ would cut off 84 percent of county clients
One of the casualties of Sacramento’s chronic budget woes could be California’s fastest-growing social program, and ripple effects would spread far and wide across Riverside County. Created as a tool to keep disabled and elderly people at home as long as possible, avoiding the larger expense of caring for them in nursing facilities, the In-Home Supportive Services program has 460,000 clients statewide. A little more than 17,000 of them are in Riverside County. Felice Connolly, a 70-year-old Homeland woman, has been receiving money from the state to care for her daughter for a dozen years. “I don’t know what the logic is behind their thinking,” Connolly said of state officials. “You’d throw all this population essentially into the street.” 
Read Story & Comment

Santa Maria Times 

When taxes are paid, there’s a certain expectation that those hard-earned dollars will go to help children, the elderly, the disabled — the most vulnerable and helpless in our society. And yet, in an effort to close the state’s estimated $20 billion deficit, one proposal is to take away Andrea Hylton’s lifeline. Hylton is a 64-year-old Santa Maria resident with a multitude of debilitating mental and physical issues. She is also one of approximately 427,000 California residents with disabilities who could lose their state-funded caregiver if the state Legislature agrees with the governor’s recommendation of cutting $1.8 billion from the program, according to a Santa Barbara County report.
Read Story & Comment

Troy Anderson. Contra Costa Times

Without program, many would end up in nursing facilities or dying early By Troy 
Hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled Californians would lose vital home care and end up in nursing homes under a budget proposal from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to a new UCLA study. The governor’s proposed cuts to the $5.5 billion In-Home Supportive Services program would turn back the clock on three decades of how society cares for the elderly and disabled, the analysis by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research said. The governor has proposed cutting about $950 million in state funding for the program, but the state also faces the potential loss of up to $2.5 billion in federal matching funds.
Read Story & Comment

Assemblymember Noreen Evans’ Blog
I met today in my District Office with local advocates for the Children’s Health Initiative. They came armed with some alarming numbers: If the Healthy Families program is eliminated, as proposed by the governor within the 2010-2011 budget, 80,769 children in the County of Riverside will lose their state-subsidized health care, 69,703 in San Bernardino County, 26,687 in Kern County, 23,076 in Fresno County, 80,451 in San Diego County, 90,143 in Orange County, and 242,660 in LA County. Further information available here. 
Read Story & Comment

Ventura County Reporter 

As California legislators, in the coming week, wrap up a special session that was called to discuss the governor’s budget proposal, the state’s poorest may be given the least consideration as programs geared toward their survival and stability seem headed for the chopping block. While it is commonplace to look at services that do not directly generate revenue, the long-term effects and socioeconomic impacts of such cuts do not appear to be seen as issues to be concerned about. As Ventura Councilman Neal Andrews said, “It is axiomatic in politics that those who have the least get the least.” Given that too many politicians listen mainly to those who can help fund their next campaigns, the poor just don’t seem to stand much of a chance of having someone fight for them.
Read Story & Comment

Jim Miller. Press Enterprise

SACRAMENTO – California is losing billions of dollars in potential revenue through various tax credits, exemptions and deductions at the same time lawmakers have approved deep spending cuts to address the state’s enormous budget problems. From no sales tax on tractor purchases to special business-friendly zones in San Bernardino and elsewhere, tax-benefit programs total more than $40 billion in lost general fund revenue in the current budget year and almost $43 billion in the next one, according to the most recent estimate by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Department of Finance. 
Read Story & Comment