A balanced budget was approved on time by the state Senate, but it is currently stalled in the Assembly. Republicans refuse to vote for modest tax increases. I and other Democrats refuse to further cut necessary services like health care, education, law enforcement, local government and, most important, assistance to our most vulnerable citizens -- children, seniors and people with disabilities.
Nobody in the Legislature wants to vote for a tax increase, but if we sacrifice the additional revenue then how are we going to make up for it? The budget already proposes more than $6 billion in spending cuts to vital statewide services. Do we impose additional cuts to schools, police, hospitals or mental health programs? Republicans have offered no credible proposals for cuts of this magnitude. If the budget impasse continues and a realistic compromise cannot be reached, many state-funded senior programs will suffer or vanish altogether.
Without Republican support for the modest revenue increases proposed in the state budget, many senior services are vulnerable to cuts:
· Adult Protective Services may be sacrificed and the occurrence of elder abuse could increase;
· Medi-Cal prescription benefits may diminish, leaving many without lifesaving medications;
· Nursing home rates may be jeopardized, causing services to be minimized;
· Seniors could lose their SSI/SSP cost-of-living increase -- an income source many depend on;
· Cancer and Alzheimer's research may be delayed, placing precious lives at stake;
· The California Assistance Program for Immigrants may disappear, causing many elderly, legal immigrants to live without SSI/SSP benefits.
The Republicans in the Legislature who oppose the budget have yet to offer a clear alternative of their own. If they really believe that the budget can be balanced without a tax increase, or that the state's ongoing gap between spending and revenues can be narrowed without harming vital services, they ought to produce a plan to do it. And fast.
The Republicans are playing a very dangerous and costly political game, because every single day California remains without a state budget our financial future is placed in more serious jeopardy. Every day without a budget, California loses roughly $2 million in reimbursements for mandated services and tax revenues that cannot be collected. As of Aug. 1, that amount increased to $5 million each day. The consequences of the Republican holdout are potentially devastating, not only to the senior population, but to all Californians.
It is the Legislature's responsibility to pass a budget which is balanced, fair and humane. That is what 34 million Californians elected us to do. If we wait until every legislator agrees with every part of this budget, then California will plummet into a financial situation from which it may never recover. Nobody wins in this budget hostage crisis. Let's get it resolved.
Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg is a Democrat who represents a district in Sacramento.
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