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Title: State budget impasse hits some people hard (Poor babies)
Source:
SF Chronicle
URL Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic ... 6/MN5P1FDA73.DTL#ixzz108fWx86d
Published: Sep 23, 2010
Author: Brant Ward
Post Date: 2010-09-23 23:10:14 by Nebuchadnezzar
Keywords: None
Views: 358
Comments: 3
State budget impasse hits some people hard Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau San Francisco Chronicle September 17, 2010 04:00 AM Copyright San Francisco Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Friday, September 17, 2010 Print E-mail deliciousdel.icio.us diggDigg technoratiTechnorati redditReddit facebookLinkedIn facebookFacebook slashdotSlashdot farkFark newsvineNewsvine googleGoogle Bookmarks twitterTwitter Share Comments (3) Georgia (default) Verdana Times New Roman Arial Font | Size: 36 Brant Ward / The Chronicle Sudha Gupta, who has been teaching at the Montessori school in East Palo Alto for eight years, hasn't been paid since July 31. Images (09-17) 04:00 PDT Sacramento - -- Sudha Gupta hasn't received a paycheck since July 31, but each day she and the 22 other teachers at Creative Montessori Learning Center in East Palo Alto dutifully come to work to serve 200 mostly low-income preschoolers. Gupta and her colleagues don't work for the state, but they are among a growing number of Californians whose everyday lives - and pocketbooks - are being impacted by the impasse over the state budget, which is now 79 days late. Even though most bills are still being paid, California law prohibits state Controller John Chiang from making certain payments unless a budget is in place. The losers in the governor's and Legislature's delay in passing a budget include health clinics that serve the poor, college students who qualify for financial aid, and state-funded child-development programs, which serve more than 270,000 children statewide. Vendors owed millions Additionally, the state owes millions of dollars to the hundreds of vendors that provide food for prisons, fuel for the Highway Patrol and other goods and services to the state. Gupta, whose husband is unable to work because he had open heart surgery in May, said families with kids at the East Palo Alto school - most of them low-income - have stepped up to donate school supplies and other necessities. She wonders, though, how long teachers and administrators will be able to hold on without paychecks. "For now our daughter is helping us ... (but) how long can we go?" asked Gupta as she watched a class of preschool students play outside on a recent afternoon. "Everybody is still coming to work because if we don't come, these 200 parents won't be able to work either and it will just be worse. We pray that we will get a paycheck." Health clinics affected The tens of thousands of low-income Californians who rely on Medi-Cal-funded health clinics for their primary care also may be left out in the cold if the state doesn't pass a budget soon. More than 1,000 clinics and 443 chronic dialysis centers around California haven't seen a check since the end of August, when funding from the state dried up. Many are now operating on shoestring budgets, cutting back hours or relying on loans from counties and private organizations. Linda Roberts, the administrator for three rural clinics that provide primary care in the San Joaquin Valley, has had to slowly cut back on hours and staffing since June, when it became apparent that state leaders were nowhere near a budget deal. The clinics, which served more than 38,000 rural, low-income patients in 2009, are now only open five days and 30 hours a week - down from seven days and 70 hours a week. Patients are waiting for hours already, and Roberts said the clinics - located in Avenal (Kings County), Pixley and Tipton (Tulare County) - will run out of money to pay their staffs by Oct. 1. "Patients are waiting, and it's unfair - the whole bottom line here is that with (state leaders) not moving forward, they are actually affecting patient outcomes," said Roberts, who noted that without a budget, clinics cannot get treatment authorization for Medi-Cal - meaning patients who need diagnostic tests such as MRIs simply have to wait. She noted that without her clinic, patients would have to rely on the emergency room for simple things such as filling a prescription - something that will cost the state far more in the long term. For some patients, the closest hospitals are 20 miles away. "It's almost criminal to withhold health care," she said. "It's the most sickening feeling." Clinics may apply for loans from Health Net, which since 2007 has offered millions of dollars in no-interest aid to rural clinics when the state budget is late. But Dave Meadows, vice president of state health programs for the company, said the $7 million the company budgeted this year for the loans will probably be gone within weeks. Also impacted are the thousands of community college students, and some California State University students, who should have been receiving a $776 financial aid check this week for books and living expenses. Those students qualified for the Cal Grant B, which awards up to $1,551 a year to needy students. Community college woes Debbie Cochrane, a financial aid expert at the Institute for College Access and Success, said the University of California system has been able to cover the cost of the grants and ensure their students still get checks, and some CSUs are also able to loan students the money. But community colleges don't have the ability to do that, and without the grants - and the ability to buy textbooks - some students have to drop classes, she said. "Students who receive Cal Grant Bs are fairly low-income. ... Typically, these are students with quite a bit of financial need," she said. "This money isn't going to cover all their bills, but it's an important resource for starting out the school year on the right foot." DON'T SHOOT, THEY'RE CALIFORNIANS, LET'EM BURN!!!!!!!!!!
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#3. To: Nebuchadnezzar (#0)
California can secede tomorrow and be the Sixth Wealthiest Nation in the World.
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