On Tuesday the Governor signed the $24 billion budget package, but angered Democratic leaders by unilaterally vetoing an additional $400 million in funding from health and human service programs as well as making nearly $100 million in cuts to other state programs. 

The Governor's additional line-item cuts to Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, community clinics, and other programs will disproportionately impact Latinos and other underserved populations.    

Speaker Karen Bass (D) and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D) both objected to the cuts and questioned whether they were legal.  The Governor said the additional cuts were necessary to build a budget reserve.

"It's a shame Governor Schwarzenegger is so eager to tear down the safety net  [and] that he appears willing to break the law to do it.  I am asking Legislative Counsel for a definitive opinion on the legality of the Governor's actions," Speaker Bass said, in a written statement. 

Bass and Steinberg said they did not agree to the cuts in the budget agreement, while a spokesperson for the Governor said he acted within his "executive authority" under the Constitution.  The Governor is authorized to make line-item vetoes under the constitution but Democratic leaders say he overstepped his authority in making cuts to portions of the budget that Democrats do not believe could be cut unilaterally by the Governor.    

"For our part, my colleagues and I will move forward to restore any of these unnecessary cuts that are found to be legal and build a responsible reserve to accompany the full deficit solution we sent the Governor last week," Speaker Bass stated. 

The Governor's $500 million in line-item vetoes include roughly $300 million to health programs, roughly $100 million to human service programs and just under $100 million to other state programs such as education and parks. 

The $300 million in cuts to health come on top of the $2 billion in cuts in the budget agreement for a total of $2.3 billion, while the $100 million in cuts to human service programs bring the total amount of budget cuts to state human service programs to a total of $1 billion, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office.

The health cuts will negatively impact hospitals and clinics, particularly in poor and underserved Latino communities.  The health cuts will be predominately born by the low-income and uninsured who are disproportionately Latino.  More than one in four Latinos aged 0-64 in California are uninsured-28% of Latinos compared to 9% of whites. 

Uninsured individuals primarily rely on the state safety net-community clinics, hospitals, and private physicians who accept Medi-Cal and Healthy Families.  These blue pencil cuts will further frustrate access to care which is already a major problem for Latino communities.

Some 85% percent of the uninsured population and 41% of the Medi-Cal population already experience problems obtaining specialty care.  Community clinics and county hospitals are the usual source of care for 50% of Latino children in households below 100% of the federal poverty line.

Following is a summary of the significant line-item vetoes that pertain to health care (Note: Statistics describing the impact of the cuts on Latinos are included where available).         

• $60.6 million additional cut for the county administration of the Medi-Cal program will disproportionately hurt Latinos.  The administration of Medi-Cal has already been cut to the bone and further cuts will greatly reduce the ability of the program to provide medical treatment to the poor and uninsured, particularly Latinos.  Nearly 50% of the roughly 6.5 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries are Latino.  County administrative offices help Latinos determine if they are eligible for Medi-Cal and apply for coverage, which can be difficult due to the language barrier.  This cut will further hamper the ability of Latinos and other low-income individuals to obtain and keep Medi-Cal Coverage.  These cuts will also reduce the ability of the counties to certify, on a timely basis, additional doctors to treat Medi-Cal beneficiaries.     

• $50 million additional cut to the Healthy Families program will hurt Latino children.  The Healthy Family program provides health insurance for low-income children, particularly Latino children.  Latino children constitute nearly 60% of the children enrolled in the Healthy Families program.  This cut will bring the total cuts to Healthy Families in the budget to $178.6 million.  Health Access projects that these combined cuts would deny more than 900,000 children health coverage.  The newly imposed wait list would deny more than 350,000 children coverage over the course of the 2009-10 budget year.  In addition, the size of the cut would force the state to actively disenroll more than 500,000 children, according to Health Access.  The state loses two dollars in matching federal funds for every dollar it cuts from the Healthy Families program.    

• $25 million additional cut to the Primary and Rural Health Program will reduce access to health care for Latinos.  This program provides access to health care to medically underserved communities, particularly Latinos and other minorities, in urban and rural areas of California.  The cut reduces state grants to clinics for primary care for the uninsured and a program which provides health care to seasonal agricultural and migratory workers, among other things.  This cut will primarily impact the uninsured.  California has approximately 6.6 million uninsured individuals of which an estimated 54% are Latino.  This cut comes on top of the roughly $10 million in cuts made under the budget agreement to community clinic programs. 

• $9 million additional cut for the Adolescent Family Life Program hurts Latino mothers.  This program is designed to enhance the health, social, economic, and educational well-being of pregnant and parenting adolescents and their children in California.  In 2006, some 78% of the 16,000 program enrollees were Latino.  An estimated 95% of enrollees are female, according to the California Department of Public Health.  This cut eliminates the remaining state funding for the $11 million program.

• $50 million additional cut to Regional Centers for services of children up to age five who are at risk for or have developmental disabilities.  The Governor directs the Secretary for the Health and Human Services, Department of Developmental Services, and the Department of Finance to immediately request the California Children and Families Commission (First 5 Commission) to backfill this reduction.  The Regional Centers have already been heavily cut, including another $234 million in cuts under the budget agreement.  

• $37 million additional cut to the In-Home Support Services (IHSS) home care program for seniors and the disabled.  This cut will further reduce eligibility and access to care.  The budget agreement already cut the IHSS program by $53.2 million.       

• $52 million additional cut for programs administered by the Office of AIDS including education and prevention, therapeutic monitoring, counseling and testing, early intervention, home and community based care, and housing.  This eliminates all remaining state funding for the program bringing the total budget reduction to $87 million. This cut will affect the Latino community due to the fact that over the past ten years, Latinos have accounted for the largest increase in the number of persons living with AIDS.

• $3 million additional cut for the Black Infant Health Program which provides health education, health promotion, social support and service coordination to pregnant and parenting African-American adult women.  This cut, which eliminates all state funding for the program, brings the total budget cut to the program to $3.9 million.               

• Eliminates $6.8 million in Proposition 99 funds for the Tobacco Control Program for anti-tobacco media campaigns and competitive grants to local entities to combat tobacco use. 

• $4 million cut to Caregiver Resource Centers which provide assistance to the thousands of families and caregivers of those with Alzheimer's disease, stroke, Parkinsons's disease  and other disorders.  The centers provide assistance to Latino families in Spanish.   

Following is a summary of the significant line-item vetoes that pertain to human service programs:

• $80 million cut to the Child Welfare Services Program hurts Latino children.  This program provides funding to counties for the hiring of social workers to protect foster children from abuse and neglect.  Roughly 40% of the children in the California foster care system are Latino (the total population varies but was 86,000 in 2004), according to the Chadwick Center.

• Eliminates $16.3 million in funding for the Domestic Violence Shelter Program which provides housing and support to victims of domestic violence.  This cut eliminates all remaining state funding for the program bringing the total budget reduction to $20.4 million. 

• $3.9 million cut to the Linkages Program and $2.3 million cut to the Community Based Services Programs which provides services to low-income Seniors and the disabled.

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