Californians with disabilities brace for cuts to disability payments

From The Sacramento Bee:

James Nuñez, 49, (pictured) who has cerebral palsy and learning difficulties, says he knows one thing all too well – the value of $20.67.

That's the amount California will cut from Nuñez's $899 monthly disability check July 1 because of state budget woes. It is causing significant worry for a Sacramento man who pays $675 for rent, utilities and phone, then struggles to buy food and cover any other expenses with what is left.

"To balance the budget, it falls on me?" Nuñez asked. "That's going to hurt. Twenty dollars means a lot to me."

Across California, 1.2 million people receiving state disability payments will see their benefits cut by 2.3 percent. An additional 1.3 million parents and children will be affected by a cut of 4 percent in state welfare benefits.

The cuts are the result of a budget gambit that went awry when anticipated federal stimulus money for California fell short of estimates.

As part of a budget deal to stave off a $40 billion California deficit, lawmakers approved $268.7 million in conditional cuts in aid for the aged, blind and disabled and $146.9 million in cuts to welfare payments for parents with children.

The cuts were to be erased if the state received $10 billion in federal budgetary aid through June 2010. But on March 27, state treasurer Bill Lockyer and Department of Finance Director Mike Genest announced that the July 1 cuts will take effect because the state is getting just $8.17 billion that meets the budget agreement criteria.

The shortfall also triggers a 0.25 percent state income tax hike – rather than a 0.125 percent increase – and eliminates other services, including adult optometry and dental care for Medi-Cal patients.

"Our determination holds great human and fiscal significance," Lockyer wrote Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders in announcing the shortfall.

Though fiscal officials believe California will get $50 billion in federal stimulus, much of that will go to school districts, tax rebates and unemployment insurance, and will not replenish state coffers.

Advocates for the poor protest that some of California's most vulnerable residents are being forced to pay for the state's fiscal mismanagement.

Mike Herald, a legislative advocate for the Western Center on Law & Poverty, said welfare cuts will sharply reduce the monthly benefit. For a family of three, it will drop from $723 to $694, just a dollar lower than the amount a similar family got in 1990.

"We're seeing record numbers of families having to go on welfare because of the economy," Herald said. "And the notion that a family of three can live on (that), pay rent, pay gas and pay their insurance – when you can't find a job – is just preposterous."

Groups working with low-income families are also furious that lawmakers signed off on a budget deal that actually turned down some $118 million in federal aid for the CalWORKS welfare program. But the state would have had to come up with another $29 million to avoid the benefit cuts.

"I think at best it's political and at worst it's just mean," complained Frank Mecca, executive director of the County Welfare Directors Association.

Chris Woods, budget director for Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, said the speaker is looking for budget solutions "to minimize the impacts of these cuts" before they take effect July 1.

But Woods said any chance of rolling back benefit cuts on welfare recipients, seniors and the disabled will likely depend on the outcome of a package of budget measures lawmakers put on a May special election ballot.

The initiatives include a measure to borrow $5 billion on anticipated revenues from a revamped state lottery and a state spending cap initiative that would also trigger some $16 billion in future taxes.

"We always anticipated a follow-up bill in the summer," Woods said. But he added: "It's not like the money is going to fall out of the sky. If the ballot measures fail, there is little chance of this money (benefit cuts) being restored."