Locals feel pinch of budget stand-off
August 21, 2008
By Shaun Bishop / Daily News Staff Writer
Walker, CEO of the Child Care Coordinating Council that subsidizes childcare for working families, said her agency has used reserve cash and took out a $600,000 credit line, but is running out of money without state funding.
As of Sept. 1 the providers won't have a guaranteed paycheck until the budget is signed, a situation she said has caused "widespread panic."
The council can retroactively pay the providers after a state budget passes, Walker said, "but that doesn't help anybody who's looking for their livelihood" now.
"It's a constant thought that this could happen every year," Walker said.
Local agencies are starting to feel the pinch from the impasse over the state budget, as lawmakers quarrel over how to close a $15.2 billion deficit. The budget was due July 1.
In his latest attempt to end the impasse, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday proposed a combination of a temporary 1 cent sales tax increase and $2 billion in budget cuts beyond what was called for in previous plans.
But the Republican leadership in the Assembly, which holds veto power because the budget needs a two-thirds vote to pass, immediately rejected Schwarzenegger's plan because of the tax increase, ensuring the battle isn't over yet.
Meanwhile, local officials are getting nervous that the state funding they depend on has dried up.
The Health Plan of San Mateo, which administers the state's Medi-Cal program to some 50,000 Peninsula residents, hasn't gotten a check from the state since July, said Executive Director Maya Altman.
As in past years when the budget is late, Altman said the agency has been digging into its reserves, which she said are between $30 million and $40 million. No one has been denied health care yet.
But with the agency paying out about $10 million per month to its clients, that money won't last forever. She said the plan may need to ask for a loan from the county.
"We're OK right now," Altman said. "If it drags on into September, we'll start to get worried."
Even if the stalemate is resolved, the county's elections office could feel some budgetary pain.
Elections Manager David Tom said his staff is planning to send the ballot designs for the November election to the printer within the next week so they can be sent to overseas voters beginning in September.
If state officials decide to put any more initiatives on the ballot -such as the governor's proposed overhaul of the state lottery system - elections officials may have to reprint the ballots, which would cost between $200,000 and $300,000, Tom said.
Should that happen, elections officials may consider just sending out an amendment to the ballot, but that could get confusing in such a large election, Tom said.
"That becomes a process nightmare," Tom said. "You're dealing with different ballots and now you're asking voters, here's one ballot and here's another one."
E-mail Shaun Bishop at
sbishop@dailynewsgroup.com.