Strickland Chooses Tabling at Borders Over Educator Meeting?

Interesting piece over at the Ventura County Star blog that accuses Sen. Tony Strickland of choosing tabling at Borders in Goleta over a meeting with educators in Ventura. Democratic activists had sent out an email about Strickland's tabling that morning as if it was October and the 19th Senate District was at stake. It left me wondering if we will ever get a break from that contentious campaign.

A post a few days prior shows Pedro Nava and his wife Susan Jordan promoting her recently announced campaign for the State Assembly. Jordan, who is director of the California Coastal Protection Network, is already campaigning hard while Nava is talking up a run for Attorney General. It's two years from now but I guess you have to start somewhere -- especially if you might run against someone more well known. I'm guessing there will be a battle royale between Jordan and someone like First District Supervisor Salud Carbajal who has been quietly raising and saving money for several years.

Welcome to the permanent campaign.

Community Post: Governor, Republicans, Are Making the Budget Crisis Worse by Targeting Home Care

By Doug Moore, Executive Director of United Domestic Workers of America

Except for the anti-tax zealots who have tied our Legislature in knots, everyone recognizes by now the gravity of our state’s budget situation. Every rational person in Sacramento now understands that we have a serious revenue problem that cannot be solved just by cutting government programs. Things like closed state offices and IOUs instead of tax refunds have a tendency to refocus the mind.

This is not to say that cuts in spending are not needed. However, in many cases, the cuts proposed by Gov. Schwarzenegger and legislative Republicans will only make the state budget crisis worse.

For example, the governor has targeted the In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, one of the most humane, cost-effective programs in state government.

IHSS keeps nearly a half million seniors and people with disabilities in their own homes and out of costly institutions. According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), it costs less than $10,000 a year to provide home care to an individual under IHSS. If that person can no longer obtain home care because of cuts in IHSS, he or she will be forced to go to a nursing home or other institution. That will cost taxpayers $55,000 a year or more, according to the LAO.

And if you think the thousands of dedicated, unsung heroes who provide home care are making exorbitant incomes, think again. Here in Santa Barbara, home care workers make just $10.50 an hour.

So why on earth would you cut a cost-effective program that helps a half million of our state’s most vulnerable citizens remain independent in their own homes and communities when the alternative will cost taxpayers at least six times more?

That’s not being fiscally responsible; it’s being penny wise and pound foolish. And it’s exactly the kind of ideological, knee-jerk thinking that helped put our state in this financial mess in the first place.

Fortunately, the Democratic leaders of the State Senate and Assembly have steadfastly supported IHSS. Indeed, Senate President Darrell Steinberg recently told the Sacramento Bee: “In my view, the people who do IHSS work; they’re doing God’s work.”

To that, the members of UDW say: “Amen!”

Doug Moore is Executive Director of the 60,000-member United Domestic Workers of America, California’s only union made up entirely of home care providers. He is also an International Vice President of AFSCME, which represents some 1.4 million members.

Governator Declares "Fiscal Emergency"

The Sacramento Bee tells us that Arnold Schwarzenegger has used a newly found power from Proposition 58 to declare a fiscal emergency.

Although this new procedure seems to have more PR value than teeth, it might get the State Legislature moving on a budget problem they would have to work on anyway in first months of the coming year.

What are the programs first on the chopping block? The article points to some who say Proposition 98, which provides funds for schools, could be cut back within the way the law was written or even suspended. It's too bad funding for schools may come first.