Social Services

On Monday, Governor Brown is set to release his May revise, but Republicans have decided to jump out in front of the administration by releasing a budget plan of their own. The state still has to close a budget gap of over $15 billion, and the title of the GOP plan tells you what you need to know about their solutions: “Roadmap for a No Tax Increase Budget.” Their alternative plan relies on cuts, transfers, and revenues. According to the GOP plan, the revised budget deficit stands at $14.7 billion, and their priorities are listed as rejecting any cuts to education, no additional higher education cuts, restoring funding to county veteran’s offices, and rejecting the governor’s realignment proposal, among other factors. Of note to counties, the plan’s outline states the following about realignment:

“To date, only one realignment proposal has been passed by the Legislature-- Assembly Bill 109. Republicans overwhelmingly opposed the proposal. Fortunately, according the Governor’s own signing statement, AB 109 will not go into effect without dedicated funding. Therefore, by not funding AB 109, Republicans can effectively stop the realignment of over 40,000 felons from state incarceration into county custody.”

Overall, the plan asks for state employee costs to be reduced by 10 percent, redevelopment cuts, and health and welfare cuts. As for the fate of redevelopment, the Bee points out that “Assembly Republicans are relying on a redevelopment overhaul for $1 billion to $1.7 billion in revenues. Because of differing opinions in the caucus, the plan does not spell out whether to fully eliminate redevelopment, as Brown has proposed, or whether to take a smaller payment but keep the program intact, as the agencies have suggested.”

In response to the rare release of a GOP plan, Brown press secretary Gil Duran said the following:

“If the Republicans were serious about contributing to a budget solution, they would not have waited until a few days before the May revise. For the most part, this is just more smoke and mirrors. It's a short-term fix like the series of short term fixes that got us into this mess in the first place. And the governor's going to stay focused on a reality based approach to solving this budget crisis."

Further analysis of the plan can be seen here. Republican leaders released the following video about their plan, featuring Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway and Assemblymembers Jim Nielsen, Kristin Olsen and Don Wagner:

Asm. Republicans Discuss Budget Proposal from CA Assembly GOP on Vimeo.

You can read an outline of the GOP budget here.

Should welfare recipients face limits on how long they can receive cash aid from Los Angeles County? That’s the proposal that officials are weighing as they look for ways to reduce the county’s welfare burden. Supervisor Don Knabe believes that such reforms are needed to prevent people from exploiting the system if they are not actively trying to find work or have not applied for disability benefits. Knabe believes that after a certain amount of time, recipients should only receive housing assistance as opposed to general-relief grants. But other supervisors have raised concerns about the impact of the proposal on those most in need. The LA Times reports:

“But some of his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors question whether recipients would be able to find housing they can afford with vouchers worth about $300 a month. ‘The question is: Is there any there, there? Can the vouchers be redeemed?’ Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said. ‘There's a lot more analysis that needs to be done.’ Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said the county should finish implementing a plan, approved at Knabe's request more than a year ago, to begin shifting responsibility to the federal government for welfare recipients with permanent disabilities. Federal disability benefits are significantly higher than general relief.”

Supervisor Yaroslavsky noted that if responsibility is shifted to the federal government, the taxpayers, the county, and recipients would all benefit. The number of people in the county who have been relying on general relief has grown greatly in the last few numbers, with the number standing at over 100,000 each month. For more on the issue, see here.

According to a report from Los Angeles County Chief Executive Officer William Fujioka, the paroling of low-level offenders by the state is costing the county millions of dollars because of the drain on local services. In fact, the early release of non-violent prisoners has reportedly cost L.A. County $10 million in the last 15 months when one factors in costs accrued by the Sheriff’s Department for monitoring inmates and costs from the Department of Mental Health in serving released inmates. The state has Parole Mental Health facilities, but many early release prisoners were dropped from its services, so the county’s department spent about $9.56 million to serve the needs of such prisoners. The report shows that while the state used early releases to save money, the costs are adding up for county government. The Daily News reports:

“County Supervisor Michael Antonovich urged the state to stop trying to reduce its budget deficit by passing its responsibilities onto the county. ‘Just sweeping the dust under the rug doesn't get rid of the dirt,’ said. ‘Shifting unfunded mandates to the county without compensation doesn't solve our government's fiscal problems.’”

Sex offenders, gang members, and anyone convicted of serious or violent felonies does not fall under the terms of the early release program. The Sheriff’s Department noted that the inmates needed to be monitored for safety reasons since many parolees could continue to commit crimes and the state was exercising no oversight.

State health and human services programs have suffered greatly in light of severe budget woes in the past few years. In another potential setback, there is a federal budget proposal that would implement $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and turn it into a block grant program. County supervisors have been strongly against such a proposal and many were on hand recently in Washington D.C. to make their position known. Such changes to Medicaid would impact the most vulnerable, and CSAC’s Executive Director has stated that “It’s a fight our counties – and our citizens — cannot afford to lose.” The House has already approved the cuts. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, who is leading the charge against the reductions, has stated that local governments would have to raise local property taxes and states would have to reduce benefits if the proposal is enacted.

Below is an excerpt from a letter that many Senate Democrats sent to President Obama urging him to oppose the proposal cutting Medicaid:

“We are writing to express our opposition to proposals that would arbitrarily cap or deeply cut federal Medicaid spending, or otherwise eliminate the fundamental guarantee to Medicaid coverage for our nation’s most vulnerable citizens, including low-income children, parents, pregnant women, people with disabilities, and senior citizens.

Since 1965, the federal government has helped states pay for the basic health care and long-term services low-income Americans need. A cap on federal funding or block grant would undermine this federal commitment. We are unwilling to allow the federal government to walk away from Medicaid’s 68 million beneficiaries, the providers that serve them, and the urban and rural communities in which they live.

Block grants and other arbitrary limits on federal Medicaid spending fail to automatically adjust for economic recessions, demographic changes, health care inflation, medical breakthroughs, epidemics, or disasters, including terrorism.”

You can read the full letter here.

Facing its 10th consecutive year of deficits, County Executive Jeff Smith has released a $4 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year that calls for major layoffs and reductions in social services. Parts of juvenile hall will be closed, rural areas will not have sheriff’s performing patrols, and there will be cutbacks in the offices of the tax collector, clerk-recorder, veterans' affairs, public guardian and emergency services. The county currently has a $219.6 million shortfall to address. Smith commented the following on the budget news: “As dire as the circumstances are that we face, I continue to have confidence in the talent of county employees, as well as our partners in labor and in the community, and their resilience during this time of crisis. We are in the seat of innovation. And, we have proven that we can overcome adversity.”

Much like other counties, the adversity has been spurred on by the major drops in local property taxes, state program revenues, and federal program revenues.  Smith also noted in his outline on the budget that the county simply cannot afford one-time solutions anymore because one-time or reserve funds are gone. Mercury News reports:

“Smith describes current labor costs as ‘not sustainable.’ He is recommending supervisors trim their current workforce by 534 positions for a $75 million savings. Of those positions, 370 are currently filled and 164 are vacant, according to the county's employment department. Social worker Robert Castillo, a union leader with SEIU Local 521, called Smith's proposal ‘draconian’ and said his union's cost-saving ideas have not been considered as an alternative to layoffs."

Under the proposal, about $2 million would be cut from social services, and nearly 20 jobs would be eliminated at the local jail. You can read the key budget recommendations here:

countybudintro