Legislature To Vote on Budget Plan After Months of Deadlock

Mon Oct 11 10:56:41 PDT 2010

 CAL/AAEM: California Chapter of the American Academy of Emergency
Medicine <http://www.aaem.org/emails/images/calaaem_header.gif> 

October 7, 2010

Legislature To Vote on Budget Plan After Months of Deadlock

CaliforniaHealthline
<http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2010/10/7/legislature-to
-vote-on-budget-plan-after-months-of-deadlock.aspx#ixzz11hNS00u7> 

On Thursday, the California Legislature is slated to vote on an $87.5
billion spending plan that could end the state's record budget impasse
99 days into the fiscal year, the Sacramento Bee reports (Yamamura,
Sacramento Bee, 10/7).

On Wednesday, legislators released an eight-page outline of the plan
during a budget committee hearing. The majority of the state's
legislators have yet to see the full language of the budget plan. 

Budget Plan Overview

Legislative leaders are proposing to close the state's $19 billion
deficit with creative accounting strategies that would delay many
payments until the next fiscal year. 

The plan includes no new taxes and no full-scale eliminations of state
programs, although some services would face spending cuts (Buchanan,
San Francisco Chronicle, 10/7).

According to state Controller John Chiang's (D) office, the budget
deal might come too late to prevent the state from issuing IOUs this
year (Goldmacher, Los Angeles Times, 10/7).

Health Care Spending Details

The budget proposal assumes the state will receive $5.3 billion in
federal funding, including $1.3 billion in higher payments for
Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program.

In addition, the plan would cut $937 million from health and human
services programs. The spending reductions include:

.      $300 million from the In-Home Supportive Services program by
imposing a 3.6% reduction in caregiver hours, leveraging federal funds
and assuming lower caseloads; 

.      $187 million by enrolling elderly and disabled residents into
managed care programs; and 

.      $84 million by freezing hospital rates.

The proposal also aims to reduce prison health care spending by $820
million (Yamamura, "Capitol Alert," Sacramento Bee, 10/6).

Changes for State Workers

The budget plan also relies on $1.5 billion in reduced spending on
state worker pensions and payroll. The plan would impose one furlough
day monthly, which would reduce employees' salaries by almost 5%
(AP/Ventura County Star, 10/7). 

Under the proposal, state employees hired in mid-November and later
would receive smaller pensions and would need to wait longer to
receive pension benefits (Ortiz [1], Sacramento Bee, 10/7).

SEIU Agreement

Meanwhile, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and the Service Employees
International Union Local 1000 recently announced a tentative
agreement that calls for current SEIU members to:

.      Accept one furlough day monthly for a yearlong period; and 

.      Contribute an additional 3% of their salary to their pensions.

The agreement also protects workers from having their pay temporarily
withheld during budget delays.

The deal still must be ratified by the Legislature and union members
(Ortiz [2], Sacramento Bee, 10/7).

Read more:
http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2010/10/7/legislature-to-
vote-on-budget-plan-after-months-of-deadlock.aspx#ixzz11hNS00u7

Abid Mogannam &
Brian Potts MD, MBA
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service
University of California, Irvine

Contact us at:  <mailto:somcaaem at uci.edu> somcaaem at uci.edu

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