Demand for state services increases as budget cuts loom, says report

SACRAMENTO
February 2, 2010 10:05am

There is increased demand for public services even as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to make deep cuts to health and human services programs to help close the current state budget gap, says a report Tuesday from the California Budget Project, which describes itself as a nonpartisan public policy research group.

The CBP report says that as Californians face the toughest job market in decades, more are turning to programs such as Medi-Cal, CalWORKs, Healthy Families, Food Stamps, and WIC to help make ends meet.

"The fact that a rising number of Californians are seeking assistance underscores the need for a balanced approach to addressing the state's budget gap that combines prudent spending reductions, additional revenues, and continued federal aid," says Jean Ross, executive director of the CBP.

The report says the Great Recession has taken a severe toll on California, noting that the state now has about the same number of jobs as it did 10 years ago, when the state had 3.6 million fewer working-age individuals.

The report says the number of Californians enrolled in Medi-Cal increased by nearly half a million in two years, growing by 7.2 percent (470,965) between May 2007 and May 2009.

The number of families receiving CalWORKs cash assistance increased by more than 86,000 in two years. This marks the first substantial rise in the caseload since welfare reform, the report says.

The number of Californians receiving food stamp benefits has increased steeply since 2007 up more than 900,000 between October 2007 and October 2009, says the report.

The Healthy Families Program has seen the number of children enrolled increase until a temporary enrollment freeze was imposed last year. Healthy Families provides health coverage to children whose family incomes are just above the poverty line. Prior to the enrollment suspension, the number of children receiving coverage had increased by 11.8 percent (97,172) between July 2007 and July 2009. Since the enrollment freeze was lifted, enrollment has begun to rebound, says CBP.

The number of women and children enrolled in WIC -- which provides food assistance and other services to low-income women and children -- increased by 2.8 percent (39,657) between December 2007 and December 2009, says CBP.

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Comments on this story

EarlRichards 2/2/10 12:52 PM (erichcspc@yahoo.ca)
Chevron Corp. earned $24 billions in excessive profits in 2008, as per www.tyrannyofoil.com. Schwarzenegger should put an excessive profits tax on these profits, instead of protecting the oil corporations from fair taxation, then, there would be sufficient public funds for all the vulnerable, people programs. Big business lost the fight to eliminate domestic violence funding, so now they are coming back with a vengeance. There is no domestic violence funding provision in the proposed budget.