County, city budget cuts loom
Sacramento County is cutting its sheriff patrols, closing mental health clinics, closing parks, and closing emergency health care clinics. There has been an almost 30% decline in sales tax revenues in the past two years. Property tax funds are a large share of county budgets, and plummeting real estate values have meant even less income for counties to pay their bills . The on going state budget-crisis state cuts funding for counties yet the state still requires them to provide costly programs. The reality is that almost all of California's counties are facing significant budget shortfalls resulting in cuts in programs, services and staffing.
Sacramento City is closing fire stations on a part time basis, closing senior centers, and reducing police protection. Both the county and the city are depending upon major concessions from labor unions to respond to declining revenues.
In the last two years California’s k-12 schools have received over a $16 billion cut back in state funding. California presently ranks 44th of the states in per pupil spending and last among the states in class size. This year in the budget the Governor proposes to reduce k-12 spending by another $2.4 Billion.
National Assessment of Education Progress [NAEP]:
• California is tied for 47th among states in fourth-grade reading. (NAEP, 2008-09)
• California is tied for 46th in eighth-grade math. (NAEP, 2008-09)
Finance; • California spends $2,131 less per pupil than the national average, ranking the State 44th in the country. (National Education Association [NEA], 2008-09)
• California spends less per pupil than each of the largest 10 states in the nation –almost $6,000 less per pupil than New York. (NEA, 2008-09
Taxpayers are getting only what they are paying for- a Mississippi class education system. The reality is that almost all of California's counties are facing significant budget shortfalls resulting in cuts in programs, services and staffing. And, some 42 of the states have severe budget crises including those with non union workers and low benefits such as Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma.
In order to help the economy grow, national, state and local governments need to maintain and to create jobs. This policy is called Keynesianism. Interestingly candidate Meg Whitman proposes exactly the opposite – cut jobs and reduce taxes for the corporations. We have had Republican/corporate governors for 22 out of the last 28 years. They have been pursuing the tax cut mantra. How well has that worked out for you?
1 comment:
Now look, here’s the problem. Mental Health Services gets paid to have people in the system. The more people in the system the more they get paid. They don’t want people out of the system. But there is an answer they won’t like to get people out of the system.
We at the Citizens Commission on Human Rights have long advocated the BASICS. Many people with "mental" problems actually have a physical problem or deficiency causing the problem. A full physical is needed to determine if there is any undiagnosed illness or injury and a nutritional checkup to discover deficiencies. Then treatment of anything found followed by rest, nutrition and physical exercise would solve many of these problems that are being classified as "mental".
In 1982 the California Legislature passed a law, SB 929, to determine if 476 mental patients actually had a physical problem. The findings?
1. 39% had an active, important physical disease.
2. The mental health system had failed to detect 47.5% of these problems.
3. One in six had a physical disease that was related to the mental disorder.
4. The mental health system had failed to detect more than half of the physical diseases that were exacerbating a mental disorder.
The State even created a Manual to screen mental patients for physical diseases. And the Manual was created. What did the Mental Health System do with it? They ignored/buried it. It would cut into their funding!
With funding drying up now is the time to implement the Manual. For those “mental” patients with a physical problem they can be treated and released saving millions of dollars.
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