Trigger Cuts to California's State Budget

On December 13, 2011, Governor Jerry Brown announced that in 2011-12, California is $2.2 billion short of the budget projections. Consequently, the failure to raise additional state revenues will result in $981 million trigger reductions that went into effect starting January 1, 2012.¹ Under provisions of the 2011-12 budget package passed in June 2011, this revenue shortfall translates into funding reductions for various state programs including education, school transportation, child care services, health programs, public safety, and local libraries²  that will negatively impact the elderly, disabled persons, college students, and children across the state.

The trigger cuts to health and human services include reductions to Medi-Cal, In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), and Developmental Disability Services. These reductions will directly affect low-income individuals by mandating co-payments for physician visits, prescriptions, emergency room visits, and dental visits.³ These trigger cuts also reduce funding for regional support facilities for disabled persons in the amount of $100 million. In addition, IHSS, which provides low-income elders and disabled individuals with basic in-home care, will be forced to reduce the number of hours of basic supportive care each individual receives.⁴ These reductions to health and human services disproportionately impacts the Southeast Asian American community in that there are high rates of disability among SEAA elders, many of whom have endured war and trauma. 68% of Cambodian, 71.2% of Hmong, 63.4% of Laotian and 57.5% of Vietnamese American elders in California have a disability.  

In higher education, the California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) systems will each see their budgets reduced by $100 million. Furthermore, California’s 112 community colleges will face $102 million in cuts. These trigger cuts are in addition to the $1 billion cut each institution endured in 2011. As a result, trigger cuts in both the CSU, UC, and Community College systems are likely to increase student fees to offset these reductions.⁵

Finally, the trigger cuts also include the complete elimination of “home-to-school” transportation; leaving 35,000 students, including 13,000 kids with special needs, without transportation to school.⁶ In addition, the trigger cuts reduced support for state child care services by $23 million, creating additional burdens on California’s working families.⁷

Please stay tuned as SEARAC will continue to bring you additional information on the California State budget and its impact on Southeast Asian Americans.