Opinion: Calif. Needs to Set Priorities

As the Department of Finance gears up to release its revenue forecast that will decide whether or not California will implement “trigger” cuts, Californians with developmental and intellectual disabilities, once again, find themselves as the bull’s-eye on the state’s budget dart board. In these difficult economic times, the state can only fund the highest priorities and supporting people with developmental and intellectual disabilities must be one of those priorities.
If you recall, the two tiers of trigger cuts are automatic mid-year budget reductions totaling almost $2 billion from education and social services. The cuts were a kind of safety mechanism incorporated into the June budget deal to deliver a state budget “balanced” by overly-optimistic revenue projections. The budget failed to develop any long-term, sustainable plans to address California’s chronic budget shortfall and in doing so, nearly guaranteed that the trigger cuts would be implemented.