Caregivers for Disabled Protest Funding Cuts

In-home health workers for the developmentally disabled and their clients marched down State Street – occupying a block at a time – on Tuesday afternoon to protest proposed spending cuts by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in response to California’s looming budget crisis. Schwarzenegger has proposed slashing $473 million in state payments for in-home supportive services. This would reduce in-home workers to the minimum wage, increase fees for some recipients, and eliminate outright the annual cost of living adjustment that would have gone into effect 2010. Schwarzenegger’s budget plan – which would raise taxes by $15 billion, borrow $10 million, and cut spending by $16 billion – has yet to win support from the Legislature’s Democratic majority or its Republican minority.