I am simply reposting an email that I received today from the Arc of California. If you have a loved one that receives services from the state - please take the time to read this blog and take action.
Dear families, friends and community partners,
We would like to bring to your attention a very important advocacy alert from The Arc of California. Please read this and take a few moments to let your voice be heard by calling, faxing or emailing your state legislators. This is our opportunity to take a stand on what cuts we want the Governor to make or NOT!
The Arc of California
January 24, 2011
Our community is facing its most serious threat in many years.
Governor Brown's proposed budget cuts would gut the Lanterman Act's promise that people with developmental disabilities will get the services and supports they need to live full lives in the community.
If the cuts happen, you could lose all of your services. There is no way to know until after they pass, if they do. This is serious.
The Arc and other disability organizations are fighting in the Capitol to protect our community's services. To limit the damage, we need a strong show of support from the community. That means you and the people you know throughout the state.
I'll tell you more about the threat, but first, here's what I'm asking you to do:
Come to Sacramento on Thursday, February 3, and Thursday, February 10, the dates of the Legislature’s only public hearings on the developmental services budget. We need to fill the hearing rooms with people who are ready to tell the legislators what the real effect of the earlier cuts has been and what the likely categorical reductions and service eliminations would mean to them and the ones they love.
Call your local state senator and assembly member this week and give them the same message.
The threat is caused by the state's massive budget shortfall, probably the worst since the Great Depression. To balance the budget, Governor Brown has proposed more than $12 billion in cuts and about the same amount in revenue increases by continuing some existing taxes by five years.
In developmental services, that would mean cuts to services of more than three quarters of a billion dollars -- real, new cuts, over and above continuing the much smaller 2009 and 2010 cuts. The total cut this year would include the federal matching funds we would lose as a result of the state fund cuts.
It's hard to grasp how much a cut that large would reduce the Lanterman Act services, especially because the governor hasn't said exactly where the ax would fall. The state could eliminate all the regional centers' operating budgets and still not cut that much.
We do know that most of the cuts probably would come from imposing what are called statewide "service standards."
"Service standards" sounds good, doesn't it? But what it means is simply eliminating the IPP team's ability to pick the services and supports that the person with the disability needs, the key promise of the Lanterman Act. The 2009 caps on respite care and Early Start are the most recent examples of "service standards."
Under the Lanterman Act, IPP teams write plans to reflect the specific needs of individuals, but with the cuts being proposed this process would certainly be harmed dramatically. Let the policymakers know how the services and supports benefit you and the real consequences to your life and the lives of your family members.
Real life consequences to real life people throughout the state are the kinds of things you should communicate to the legislative committees in Sacramento and to your local state senator and assemblymember. Tell them the cut is just too big to bear.
Here is the best information I have as of today on the committees' public hearings:
Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, 9:30 a.m. or later, February 3, Room 4202, State Capitol, Sacramento.
Senate Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, 9:30 a.m. or later, February 10, Room 4203, State Capitol, Sacramento.
And here's how to call your local state senator and assemblymember, if you don’t know who they or how to call them:
Click on The Arc’s Legislative Action Center: http://capwiz.com/thearc/state/main/?state=CA&view=myofficials
Enter your ZIP code and click on “Go”
Scroll down to “State Senators,” and click on it.
Click on “contacts” and call your senator’s Sacramento office (unless you know someone who works in the senator’s district office).
Do the same with “State Representatives.”
When you call, get the name of the person you’re talking to. Think of this as the beginning of a relationship. Tell him or her why you care, and that Governor Brown’s proposed cut in developmental services is just too big.
And I hope to see you in Sacramento.
Thank you for your advocacy.
Greg deGiere
The Arc of California
[email protected]
Together we can make a difference. Onwards and upwards!
Dear families, friends and community partners,
We would like to bring to your attention a very important advocacy alert from The Arc of California. Please read this and take a few moments to let your voice be heard by calling, faxing or emailing your state legislators. This is our opportunity to take a stand on what cuts we want the Governor to make or NOT!
The Arc of California
January 24, 2011
Our community is facing its most serious threat in many years.
Governor Brown's proposed budget cuts would gut the Lanterman Act's promise that people with developmental disabilities will get the services and supports they need to live full lives in the community.
If the cuts happen, you could lose all of your services. There is no way to know until after they pass, if they do. This is serious.
The Arc and other disability organizations are fighting in the Capitol to protect our community's services. To limit the damage, we need a strong show of support from the community. That means you and the people you know throughout the state.
I'll tell you more about the threat, but first, here's what I'm asking you to do:
Come to Sacramento on Thursday, February 3, and Thursday, February 10, the dates of the Legislature’s only public hearings on the developmental services budget. We need to fill the hearing rooms with people who are ready to tell the legislators what the real effect of the earlier cuts has been and what the likely categorical reductions and service eliminations would mean to them and the ones they love.
Call your local state senator and assembly member this week and give them the same message.
The threat is caused by the state's massive budget shortfall, probably the worst since the Great Depression. To balance the budget, Governor Brown has proposed more than $12 billion in cuts and about the same amount in revenue increases by continuing some existing taxes by five years.
In developmental services, that would mean cuts to services of more than three quarters of a billion dollars -- real, new cuts, over and above continuing the much smaller 2009 and 2010 cuts. The total cut this year would include the federal matching funds we would lose as a result of the state fund cuts.
It's hard to grasp how much a cut that large would reduce the Lanterman Act services, especially because the governor hasn't said exactly where the ax would fall. The state could eliminate all the regional centers' operating budgets and still not cut that much.
We do know that most of the cuts probably would come from imposing what are called statewide "service standards."
"Service standards" sounds good, doesn't it? But what it means is simply eliminating the IPP team's ability to pick the services and supports that the person with the disability needs, the key promise of the Lanterman Act. The 2009 caps on respite care and Early Start are the most recent examples of "service standards."
Under the Lanterman Act, IPP teams write plans to reflect the specific needs of individuals, but with the cuts being proposed this process would certainly be harmed dramatically. Let the policymakers know how the services and supports benefit you and the real consequences to your life and the lives of your family members.
Real life consequences to real life people throughout the state are the kinds of things you should communicate to the legislative committees in Sacramento and to your local state senator and assemblymember. Tell them the cut is just too big to bear.
Here is the best information I have as of today on the committees' public hearings:
Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, 9:30 a.m. or later, February 3, Room 4202, State Capitol, Sacramento.
Senate Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, 9:30 a.m. or later, February 10, Room 4203, State Capitol, Sacramento.
And here's how to call your local state senator and assemblymember, if you don’t know who they or how to call them:
Click on The Arc’s Legislative Action Center: http://capwiz.com/thearc/state/main/?state=CA&view=myofficials
Enter your ZIP code and click on “Go”
Scroll down to “State Senators,” and click on it.
Click on “contacts” and call your senator’s Sacramento office (unless you know someone who works in the senator’s district office).
Do the same with “State Representatives.”
When you call, get the name of the person you’re talking to. Think of this as the beginning of a relationship. Tell him or her why you care, and that Governor Brown’s proposed cut in developmental services is just too big.
And I hope to see you in Sacramento.
Thank you for your advocacy.
Greg deGiere
The Arc of California
[email protected]
Together we can make a difference. Onwards and upwards!
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