May 29, 2009
A recent report that state spending on health care for state prisoners is nearly $500 million over budget this year helps shed light on one of the darker corners of the state budget: corrections.
Most Californians probably do not realize that the state’s prison costs have soared since the 1980s. In 1987-88, California spent 5 percent of its General Fund dollars on corrections, compared to 10 percent in 2007-08. In other words, “spending on corrections takes up about twice as much of the state budget [as] it did 20 years ago,” according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO). This trend is troubling because every dollar the state spends on prisons means one less dollar to spend on education, health and human services, or other programs.
At the same time, the average cost of incarcerating an inmate has more than doubled, rising from $19,500 in 1987-88 to $46,100 in 2007-08. One of the main reasons for this jump, according to the LAO, is the increase in inmate health care costs, which have risen by more than $1.5 billion since 2000, largely in response to a federal court order requiring the state to provide prisoners with a constitutionally acceptable level of care. Moreover, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) projects that the percentage of prisoners who are getting on in years will continue to rise sharply, a trend that would surely continue to drive up the state’s costs for inmate health care. CDCR projects that one-quarter (25.6 percent) of male inmates in California will be age 50 or older in 2018, compared to 13.2 percent in 2007 and just 3.9 percent back in 1988.
The kicker: Essentially all of these inmate health care costs are borne by the state, with little or no federal cost sharing. With the state facing projected multi-billion dollar budget gaps every year for the foreseeable future, it makes you wonder whether it’s time to turn back the clock and reduce, wherever appropriate, the number of aging prisoners for whom the state’s taxpayers are responsible.
– Scott Graves
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State Budget | Tagged: budget, corrections, health care, prisoners | 
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Posted by cbporg
May 27, 2009
It’s one thing to talk about cutting programs. It’s something else to talk about the impact that the Governor’s proposed budget cuts will have on real people and real lives. Today, the Legislature’s Budget Conference Committee has heard several hours of testimony, some of it emotional, from Californians concerned about the impact of the Governor’s proposed cuts to health and human services programs. These cuts add up to a staggering $4.9 billion in 2009-10, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
But what would these cuts really mean to everyday Californians? Two recent CBP fact sheets help break down the Governor’s proposed cuts to Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, in numbers that are easier to grasp. These fact sheets show:
- More than 940,000 California children would lose health coverage if the Healthy Families Program is eliminated as the Governor proposes. More than 240,000 children in Los Angeles county alone would be affected. Want to know how many children would be impacted in your county? Check out the fact sheet to see.
- In total, more than 1.9 million Californians could lose access to health coverage within three years through proposed reductions to the Medi-Cal Program and elimination of Healthy Families.
As the Governor said himself today, “behind every one of those dollars that we cut there are real faces.”
– Scott Graves
Comments Off | Health, State Budget | Tagged: budget cuts, Healthy Families Program, Medi-Cal, State Budget | Permalink
Posted by cbporg
May 26, 2009
The Governor announced $6.1 billion of additional budget “solutions,” including elimination of the CalWORKs and Healthy Families programs and phase out of the CalGrant Program. The newly announced proposals would substitute for borrowing proposed in the Governor’s May Revision, released on May 14. As we’ve previously blogged, a Conference Committee of the Legislature will take public testimony and consider these and other proposals over the next several weeks.
– Jean Ross
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Posted by cbporg
May 23, 2009
Forget everything you ever learned about the “normal” budget process. This year has been anything but normal! The two-house Conference Committee charged with addressing the state’s budget gap has announced their schedule and suggested guidelines for public testimony and for the committee’s deliberations on specific policy areas.
The Conference Committee will consider modifications to the 2009-10 Budget Bill, signed into law in February, as well as reductions to 2008-09 spending and other proposals for bridging the budget gap.
– Jean Ross
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Posted by cbporg
May 22, 2009
California’s workers continue to face the toughest job market in a generation. The state’s unemployment rate dropped slightly to 11.0 percent in April from March’s record high of 11.2 percent. However, the data released today should not be interpreted as a sign that the recession is losing steam. Data from a survey of California employers – considered to be a more reliable indicator of the economy – show that the state lost another 63,700 jobs in April.
Moreover, the unemployment rate actually understates the current weakness in the labor market. A more comprehensive measure shows that, on average, nearly one out of six working-age Californians – 16.4 percent – was either unemployed or underemployed during the 12 months ending in April. This figure includes nearly 1.2 million workers who want full-time jobs but have had to settle for part-time work, as well as the 267,000 jobless Californians who would gladly take a job if they could find one, but aren’t officially counted as unemployed because they’ve given up looking for work.
Even if the economy hits bottom soon and begins to grow again, Californians can expect a long road ahead to recovery. Most forecasters expect the job market to rebound slowly. For example, the recent Department of Finance projections show the state’s annual jobless rate peaking at 12.0 percent in 2010 and remaining in the double digits at least through 2011. This isn’t surprising considering that California needs to add nearly 780,000 jobs just to return to pre-recession employment levels. To put this number in context, California added about 269,000 jobs between 2004 and 2005, which was the largest annual increase in jobs in the state this decade.
The prospect of a long, slow recovery means that health and human services programs – which play a critical role in helping to cushion the recession’s impact on California’s families – are likely to face increased demand for some time. However, many of the programs that form the backbone of California’s safety net are slated for deep funding cuts in the Governor’s latest budget proposals. These cuts threaten to stretch the state’s safety net too thin to catch all of the families struggling to make ends meet during the worst downturn in decades.
– Alissa Anderson
1 Comment | Work, Wages, & Incomes | Tagged: economy, recession, underemployment, unemployment | Permalink
Posted by cbporg
