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Alameda County District 5 Supervisor Keith Carson
1221 Oak Street, Suite 536, Oakland, CA 94612 • 510.272.6695

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Dark Clouds Still Ahead for Alameda County

March 1, 2010

As the sun struggles to peak through the string of storms over the past few weeks Alameda County forecasts that the worst is yet to come, but County leaders are not talking about the weather.  Alameda County will not be bathing in the sun even though some economists signal the recession is over.

“The worst is yet to come,” says Supervisor Keith Carson, Chair of the Alameda County Budget Workgroup.  “Since balancing the largest deficit in County history last fiscal year ($178 million), we have continued to see revenues decline and property values drop which directly impacts how the County is able to provide services.”

The public economic forum in Oakland on February 25, 2010 at the Elihu Harris State Building was part of a series of forums that gave residents, community-based organization, service providers, and labor representatives the most up-to-date information about the state of the County and how the State and Federal budgets are expected in impact local government and community services. 

The unemployment rate, which is at 10.9% for Alameda County, leaves approximately 87,000 residents without jobs.  The growing number of unemployed individuals in Alameda County means more people are relying on public services. With the NUMMI closure looming the County is expecting to lose up to 20,000 more jobs in the coming months.

“People are losing health benefits that were once provided by their employer and now turn to the County for their health needs,” Supervisor Carson said. “With revenues from Measure A, the half cents sales tax passed by the voters in 2004 to help fund medical services, is down approximately $5 million. County health facilities have more patients with less funding.”

Median home values have gone from $619,000 in 2007 to $360,000 (down 42%).  Property taxes represent the largest source for County programs and services.  The County Assessment Roll is what determines how much property taxes the County receives and has declined for the first time by 2.2%, representing $4 billion in reductions of property value.

Since the beginning of the recession in 2007, Alameda County has seen sharp increases in caseloads in CalWORKs, Medi-Cal, Food Stamps, and General Assistance programs.  Funding for these programs come from property and sales taxes.  With all revenues down drastically and expected to continue to decline, programs are seeing more need and less funding.

Governor Schwarzenegger’s threats to eliminate programs in Health and Human Services mean that 15,000 people receiving in-home care will lose daily support and 18,000 providers will lose their job.  One thousand CAPI (Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants) recipients and 20,000 families on CalWORKs will lose assistance.

“It’s inconceivable to me that the Governor can just arbitrarily cut without thinking about the people that he is creating hardships for,” said Betty Mulholland, an Oakland senior who requires oxygen 24 hours a day and an in-home care worker to help with her daily needs.  Mulholland has already lost portions of her Supplemental Security Income and without funding for her in-home care worker she will not be able to afford to pay a private company to assist her.

Consumer spending will help the economic recovery, but without employment people will not be able to spend and pay taxes to push our economy back to pre-recession levels.  Economists from around the State agree that the recovery will be extremely slow.  The recovery from the 2001 recession took 45 months to get back to the pre-recession levels and recovering from The Great Recession of 2007 is expected to take much longer to recover.

The focus should indeed be on saving existing jobs and the creation of new jobs.  “Government jobs make up 16% of all jobs in the East Bay,” said Supervisor Carson.  “Alameda County is committed to examining all possible options in order to maintain a balanced budget and save as many jobs as possible.  It is important that local government take a proactive approach in working with the community and prepare for the coming storm.  The Worst is yet to come.”

The Terminator Attacks California’s neediest residents

Part 1: What the elimination of CalWORKs would mean for Alameda County

June 1, 2010

Imagine this scenario: your cash-strapped neighbor is putting up his cousins who just lost their jobs and need a place to crash for a few weeks.  He suddenly decides he can’t afford the extra groceries so he kicks them out and tells them to knock on your door.  Only problem is, your financial situation is just as bad as your neighbor’s.  Sounds pretty unfair, right?

Imagine now that “you” are California’s counties and your pesky “neighbor” is Governor Schwarzenegger.  Your “cousins” represent the 1.4 million children and parents in the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, the welfare-to-work program that provides assistance to the state’s neediest families.  The Terminator is at it again: instead of protecting the citizens he supposedly represents, he is dumping the responsibility on local governments and saying “Hasta la vista, baby.”

The Terminator’s proposal to close the state’s $19.1 billion budget gap includes $12.2 billion in cuts to a wide range of state programs.   Schwarzenegger’s most preposterous proposal is the complete elimination of the CalWORKs program, which would deal a severe blow to the safety net that keeps millions of Californians housed and fed.

The program helps people like UC Berkeley graduate Christiana Milton, a single mother of two children who relies on CalWORKs childcare to be able to attend classes, work, and have an internship.  Christiana reflects that “without CalWORKS assistance, I would not have been able to afford the costs of childcare, thus completing an education, which will inevitably lead me to being able to support myself and children with a livable wage.”

The elimination of CalWORKs is by no means a done deal.  Similar proposals by Schwarzenegger have been challenged in the courts or rejected by the Legislature.  Although it is unlikely that CalWORKs will be completely gutted, it is important to understand how these proposals could potentially impact the residents of Alameda County.

According to the California Budget Project, 48,070 recipients in Alameda County would lose desperately needed assistance if the Governor has his way.  Between the proposed October 1, 2010 date of elimination and June 2011, the county would lose $151.7 million in funding.

The Alameda County Social Services Agency (SSA), the agency that administers CalWORKs, projects that approximately 10,000 CalWORKs Welfare to Work participants would lose employment services assistance in Alameda County.  According to a report by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, low-income earners spend a larger percentage of their income in the local economy than do higher-income earners. For this reason, the elimination of CalWORKs would remove over $200 million from the local economy.

California is also putting itself at risk of losing billions of dollars in federal matching funds if programs like CalWORKs are axed.  According to a California Budget Project report, “eliminating CalWORKs would cause California to lose three-quarters ($2.8 billion) of the state’s federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant in 2010-2011, and to lose the state’s entire annual $3.7 billion TANF block grant every year thereafter.”  This is money that the state uses to run programs like CalWORKs so that General Fund dollars can be used for other purposes such as education and public safety.  

To add insult to injury, the Governor’s proposal would also result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.  According to the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education report, the elimination of CalWORKs would result in an estimated 61,000 jobs lost in California, the vast majority of which would be private sector jobs that would disappear due to steep declines in spending by low-income residents. 

The deeper problem with Schwarzenegger’s plan is that it simply shifts the costs for the welfare system from the state to the county.  Under state law, counties are still required to provide assistance to needy families, even if the state reduces or cuts programs. With Alameda County facing its own $182 million budget deficit for 2010-11, the Governor’s proposal is a slap in the face to local government.

Alameda County Social Services officials predict that the families kicked off CalWORKs may become eligible to receive General Assistance (GA) cash aid.  GA is nearly 100% paid for by the County General Fund, so taxpayers in Alameda County would still foot the bill through increases in local property and sales taxes.  The GA program in Alameda County, however, is already under severe financial stress.  Last year, the Board of Supervisors (with Supervisor Carson voting against the measure) implemented a cap on assistance to recipients deemed employable.  Starting April 1, 2010, those recipients have been restricted to three months of cash assistance over a twelve month period.  Once the GA funds run out, many Alameda County residents could potentially face homelessness.

The Terminator’s “solutions” to the state budget gap are a smoke screen.  The gimmicks may help the state to balance its own books, but in reality they just allow Schwarzenegger to pass the buck to local leaders, leaving your “cousins,” over 1 million Californians, out in the cold. 

The Terminator’s Curveball to California’s Counties

Part 2: How the Inmate Transfer would affect County Jails

June 8, 2010

The Governor’s May Revise Budget proposal is comparable to a legislative Gulf oil spill. The Governor is the reckless multi-national energy company and the oil-soaked birds and wildlife are local governments. One of the Governor’s current proposals is to dump State inmates in county jails and give local government a fraction of the money necessary to care for them. Just like the Gulf fishermen, Sheriffs will have no chance of mitigating the damage that will be caused by the flood of inmates coming from State to County facilities.

We are all familiar with the overcrowding in California’s prisons. The Federal Government knows it, the Governor knows it, the State Legislature knows it and our residents know it. There has been no shortage of productive ideas for how to combat the overcrowding situation. One such idea, which is a fraction of the cost of incarceration, is to provide resources and local supervision for non-violent offenders close to their families and communities. Yet it seems that the Terminator has lost all common sense, ignoring good ideas and deciding to save the State government money in the short run while dropping short and long term problems on the doorstep of local communities.

The first gem in the Governor’s revised budget is a proposal to transfer State inmates to County jails and pay the counties $11,500 a year per inmate. That may sound like a lot of money per person, but let’s take a look inside the numbers. The state pays roughly $50,000 a year to house an inmate in State Prison. When counties contract with the state to house state inmates, we are given approximately $77 a day, which is a bit more than $28,000 a year. At that rate counties break even. So reimbursing counties for only $11,500 per inmate per year will force each county to cough up millions of dollars to make up the difference.

The second pitch is a curveball for those of us who have advocated for releasing non-violent inmates from incarceration and putting them on parole. The Governor is planning to identify a group of non-violent inmates and put them on non-revocable parole. This means that if the person commits a new crime, it is not a parole violation, it is a new case. Under these circumstances, the majority of the costs fall on local government, not state government. I am an advocate for parole reform, but shifting costs and responsibility is not the answer.

Each year I can’t imagine the budget situation getting any worse and every year it does. What makes it worse is every year the State legislature add fuel to the fire by cutting more holes in the safety net of local government, continuing fiscally irresponsible practices and passing the buck to the next group of legislators and the next generation of Californians. Next step fiscal implosion!

The Terminator’s Curveball to California’s Counties

Part 3: “Surgical cuts” gone terribly wrong

June 17, 2010

What does it mean to be “surgical” when it comes to fiscal management? President Obama used the term to describe the speedy, precise process that was intended to lead GM through bankruptcy in record time. In tough economic times, legislators should balance budgets by “surgically” cutting out duplicative or unproven programs.

In Governor Schwarzenegger’s world, “surgical” means something entirely different. When the Terminator goes in, it’s with a cleaver as he bluntly gouges the poor and needy. There is often no rhyme or reason as to where the knife lands. In his recent May Revise Budget Proposal, the Governor arbitrarily plans to cut programs that help California’s neediest residents. Many of his proposals would lead to higher unemployment and a loss of economic investment in local communities. Schwarzenegger is no highly trained surgeon—with every slip of the knife, he is bleeding California dry.

Let’s take a closer look at a few of the Governor’s “surgical” cuts.

Cuts to the California AIDS Drug Assistance Program

The California AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) subsidizes the purchase of costly AIDS drugs for those who cannot afford them. In the Governor’s January Budget proposal, this subsidy was cut for inmates in county jails, but remained intact for inmates in state prisons. According to the Alameda County Sheriff’s office, the Sheriff would be forced to pick up the cost of providing these services for 250 inmates to the tune of approximately $500,000 per year. This arbitrary, nonsensical scheme simply unloads the responsibility for the ADAP program on overburdened county governments. As a longtime advocate for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated citizens, I find it disturbing that the Governor would sacrifice prisoner health to save the bottom line.

Cuts to Subsidized Childcare

The Governor’s proposal eliminates funding for the CalWORKs Child Care program and all state supported childcare programs, with the exception of pre-school and after-school programs. Across the state, that would mean 142,000 children would have no place to go when their parents are at work. According to the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, the cuts would also lead to an estimated loss of 38,000 full-time equivalent childcare provider jobs and a loss of approximately $3.1 billion in economic output in California. The number of childcare jobs is probably even higher than 38,000 considering that many childcare providers work part-time. Along with the proposed elimination of the CalWORKs Welfare to Work program, the loss of childcare robs thousands of Californians of a vital service. Childcare subsidies assist not only the state’s neediest residents of the resources to lift themselves out of poverty; students and working professionals also depend upon the services on a daily basis. Common sense tells us that if a parent can’t find affordable childcare, she or he will have trouble going to school, seeking employment or holding down a job. Why would the Governor gut programs that allow Californians to make a living and contribute to society?

Cuts to Immigrant Programs

Governor Schwarzenegger’s May Revise also attacks legal immigrants, some of whom have come to America from war-torn countries to seek asylum. The Terminator plans to eliminate the Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI) and the California Food Assistance Program (CFAP), a program for non-citizens who are ineligible for federal food stamp aid. According to the Alameda County Social Services Agency, there are approximately 1,000 individuals who receive CAPI benefits in the County. If the CAPI program is eliminated, the majority of these individuals will become eligible for General Assistance (GA) benefits. The addition of CAPI recipients to the GA program, which is almost 100% funded by the County, would result in a $4 million increase in GA grant costs. As I mentioned in my first Op-Ed, the County has already taken actions to limit GA benefits to 3 months for a 12 month period for those deemed employable. This was a move I opposed. Adding more GA clients will only burden a program that is already in fiscal emergency. For non-citizens who struggle with the language barrier and cultural differences, the loss of these support services will make it even more difficult for them to find employment and establish themselves as tax-paying residents.

Reductions in Women’s Health Programs

The classic Terminator “surgical cuts” attack programs that both save the state money and attract hefty federal matching funds. The California Family PACT (Planning, Access, Care and Treatment) is one such program. This family planning program, which the Governor has targeted for possible elimination in the 2010-11 budget, has saved the state more than $4 billion since 1997. In other words, for every dollar invested in the PACT program, the state saves $9.25 in medical costs related to unintended pregnancies. These figures come from a recent analysis by the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California San Francisco. Family PACT is also extremely successful in attracting federal matching funds. According to the Bixby Center report, for every dollar the state spends on family planning programs, Washington sends $9 in matching funds to California.

Why would the Governor slash programs that clearly save the state money, bring in federal dollars and provide crucial services to needy residents? By targeting programs that serve the most vulnerable Californians, the Governor’s cuts will significantly impact the County’s ability to serve our residents. We are the ones who have to look these people in the eye and tell them there’s no more money. With proposals like these, we are left to scratch our heads and plan for worst case scenarios. As the Terminator performs his usual botched “surgical” procedure, the State Legislature and county governments are left to clean up the mess.