Falling Behind

February 2, 2012

A new CBP report, Falling Behind: The Impact of the Great Recession and the Budget Crisis on California’s Women and Their Families, looks at the economic downturn’s effect on the state’s women, especially low-income women and single mothers.

The report shows that the budget crisis has resulted in severe cuts to supports for families as well as to programs that help women prepare for, find, and keep employment. These include major spending reductions to CalWORKs as well as to child care, Medi-Cal, in-home care, and postsecondary education. The report also shows that these cuts have come amid an economic downturn that has been hard on California’s women, especially single mothers.

The report finds that:

  • Employment and earnings among single mothers have dropped significantly during the economic downturn. In just three years – from 2007 to 2010 – the share of single mothers with jobs fell by more than 10 percentage points to 59 percent, its lowest point in almost 15 years, while the percentage of single-mother families living in poverty jumped to 36 percent.
  • The state cut a total of more than $3 billion from CalWORKs between 2008-09 and 2011-12, equal to about $3,000 for each of the 1.1 million children in the program.
  • The state has cut child care and preschool funding by a total of $1.5 billion over the past three years, eliminating services for tens of thousands of children – including 35,000 children in the current year alone.
  • Since 2007-08, state support for community colleges has dropped by almost one-fifth. Community college enrollment has dropped by almost 130,000 during this period, with women accounting for more than 80 percent of the decline.

Support for Falling Behind was provided by a grant from the Women’s Foundation of California. You can read the full report here and an executive summary of the report here.

– Steven Bliss

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A Fresh Start for CalFresh

January 11, 2012

The new year brings a major change to CalFresh, a federal program that provides modest food benefits that help nearly 4 million low-income Californians – more than half (60 percent) of whom are children – ward off hunger. Thanks to AB 6 (Fuentes), Californians applying for CalFresh assistance no longer have to be fingerprinted in order to receive benefits. This change should help increase the number of Californians who enroll in CalFresh, since numerous studies suggest that fingerprinting deters eligible individuals from applying, as we reported in 2009. Boosting participation in CalFresh is sorely needed. In 2009, just 53 percent of eligible Californians were enrolled, ranking dead last among the 50 states, according to a recent report from the US Department of Agriculture. In addition, because CalFresh benefits are 100 percent federally funded, improving participation would bring more federal dollars to California. Those additional federal dollars would be spent at grocery stores throughout the state, supporting jobs and further aiding local economies.

– Scott Graves

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Assembly Committee Assesses CalWORKs in Wake of Recent Budget Cuts

November 7, 2011

CalWORKs, the state’s welfare-to-work program, has been battered by budget cuts in recent years. Last Thursday, Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 1 on Health and Human Services held an overview hearing to assess what those cuts mean for the 1.5 million Californians – including 1.1 million children – who rely on CalWORKs to help keep a roof over their heads, afford other necessities, and move toward self-sufficiency. The CBP provided testimony on the state’s discouraging jobs picture and recent trends in the CalWORKs Program. Our presentation described the impact of years of cuts to CalWORKs cash assistance and highlighted the fact that California now has a grant level lower than 27 other states, after adjusting for housing costs. Video of the hearing is here.

– Scott Graves

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Governor Acts on Key Bills

October 10, 2011

Governor Brown completed action this weekend on the roughly 600 bills that the Legislature sent him before adjourning last month. The Governor signed a significant budget-related bill, SB 202 (Hancock), which moves a state spending cap measure from the June 2012 primary election ballot to the November 2014 general election ballot. The spending cap measure – ACA 4 – was placed on the ballot as part of the October 2010 budget agreement. SB 202 also requires future initiatives and referenda to be placed on November general election ballots.

The Governor also signed AB 6 (Fuentes), which eliminates the fingerprinting requirement for CalFresh – formerly food stamp – applicants, although not for CalWORKs welfare-to-work applicants. AB 6 also cuts red tape by shifting from a quarterly to a six-month reporting system for CalFresh and CalWORKs recipients. These changes, which the CBP recommended back in 2009, are expected to increase program efficiencies and boost the CalFresh participation rate, which ranks near the bottom among the 50 states’ food assistance programs. Unfortunately, the Governor vetoed AB 1182 (Hernández), which would have further simplified CalWORKs by eliminating California’s restrictive “vehicle asset test.” Families who apply for CalWORKs generally cannot have a car worth more than $4,650, a limit that has not been adjusted since the mid-1990s. California has one of the strictest limits in the nation despite the fact that Californians rely heavily on their cars to get to work, and in today’s market a car worth less than $4,650 is not likely to be very reliable, to say the least. Let’s hope the Legislature gives the Governor an opportunity to reconsider his veto next year.

– Scott Graves

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Video: The CBP’s Jean Ross Discusses California’s Safety Net

October 5, 2011

With increased unemployment and poverty brought on by the continuing economic downturn, more individuals and families are relying on public programs for food assistance, health coverage, income support, and other services. This rising demand comes at a time when budgets at all levels of government are stretched thin.

Last week in Sacramento, CBP Executive Director Jean Ross participated in a panel discussion hosted by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) that looked at the condition of – and challenges facing – California’s safety net in the wake of the Great Recession. Moderated by David Lesher, PPIC director of government affairs, the panel featured Jean along with Caroline Danielson, PPIC policy fellow (pictured here) and Bruce Wagstaff, countywide services agency administrator for Sacramento County. The full video is below.

– Steven Bliss

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