Governor's Final Vetoes Promise More Protests

TAKING A STANCE — More than 100 community members, teachers and students lined the sidewalks at Bundy and Airport drives in Santa Monica to protest state budget cuts to education and public programs.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent use of his line-item veto to cut an additional $500 million from the 2009-10 state budget has raised a new round of outcries, with some community activists getting ready to once again hit the streets for protests.

Schwarzenegger made the cuts to various social services, healthcare, and education funds, including reductions to programs intended to address AIDS prevention, intervention and support programs, efforts to stem domestic violence program, and the Black Infant Health Program. The cuts came in addition to earlier reductions in various public safety-net programs that had been passed by the state legislature.

California State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, a Democrat from Los Angeles, blasted the governor's vetoes, calling Schwarzenegger's actions "game playing" that will have catastrophic affects on children, domestic abuse victims and seniors.

"It wasn't too long ago when a 24-year-old woman born with HIV pleaded with legislators not to adopt the governor's proposal to eliminate the program that provides the drugs that keep her alive," Bass said in a written statement July 28. "The governor's actions today have not just caused harm; his actions ... put lives in jeopardy ... He and his staff may be lighting cigars to celebrate these cuts, but they should also be concerned about the devastating harm they are causing."

The governor is cutting funding to the Black Infant Health Program at a time when African American babies have a mortality rate three times higher than white babies, and cuts to child welfare services are leaving children and foster kids vulnerable, she added.

Bass said she is asking the Legislative Counsel for a definite opinion on the legality of the governor's actions, raising some questions on whether the line-item veto power extends to revisions of budgets that had been passed earlier. The recent agreed amount to a revision of an earlier budget, with lawmakers and the governor scrambling to address a deteriorating situation with state finances in the face of the recession.

Schwarzenegger's office defended the cuts. H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state Department of Finance, said the governor had no choice.

"The governor took no pleasure in having to make additional cuts," Palmer said. "But he was compelled to because there were two measures that totaled $1.2 billion that the Assembly failed to include ... which left us $200 million upside down."

The measures Palmer mentioned would have allowed the state to stronghold local governments' funds and allowed oil drilling off the Santa Barbara Coast.

The final budget was passed after months of bickering between Republicans and Democrats that led to a budget stalemate lasting nearly 20 days.

Though Schwarzenegger signed the budget Tuesday, many community organizations and the general public are getting set to speak out against the cuts in the current budget and more that could be on the horizon, with the state likely to face chronic financial pain for the next several years.

Even Bass said she couldn't guarantee no more cuts would occur.

"I can't promise you we won't have to make additional cuts," she said in a press teleconference July 21. "If the recession has hit rock bottom, we did plan for the deficit for next year and the year after, but if it hasn't ... we don't know what's going to happen."

Meanwhile, representatives of community organizations and members of the general public say they've only begun to protest the cuts. That makes it likely that there will be more efforts such as many that took place in the days before legislators passed the budget. One of the protests drew 100 community members, students and teachers to sidewalks at the entrance to Santa Monica Airport — where Schwarzenegger arrives in a private plane when returning home from Sacramento — shouting slogans and holding signs in protest of the proposed cuts.

Chants of "We're fired up and won't take it no more," "The governor says he's fine, working families left behind," and "Education's burning down," and Schwarzenegger's failing now, smoking cigars, he pretends to work real hard," inspired passersby to cheer and drivers to honk horns.

Organized by the Community Coalition and other public organizations, the protest was just one of many rallies that took place across the state.

This is just the beginning, said Community Coalition Executive Director Marqueece Harris-Dawson.

"For low-income communities and families ... our nightmare is far from over," he said.

Harris-Dawson also said that a nightmare scenario started long before lawmakers passed the overdue budget. Many public and community assistance programs that depend on state funding would have already received funds if a budget had been passed on time. Harris-Dawson said that many had begun turning people away as the wrangling in Sacramento went on for weeks.

The State Assembly approved a three-bill package that would have temporarily remedied the states cash-flow troubles and consequently alleviated the need for the state controller to issue IOUs, but the effort failed in the State Senate in June. Schwarzenegger also vetoed another similar package that received a majority vote around the same time.

Some social programs soon began receiving IOUs from the state, while others saw funding streams from the state freeze.

The Healthy Families Program was just one of the many programs to be affected by the IOUs, with additional ramifications expected from the budget that eventually passed. The program is a state-subsidized health insurance program that provides coverage to children in low-income families who do not have insurance and do not qualify for Medi-Cal.

ACTIVISM STARTS YOUNG — More than 100 people of all ages and ethnicities joined the July 20 "mourning" protest against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California budget cuts. Organized in part by the Community Coalition, the hour-long rally seemed to strike a chord with people driving by, who honked their horns and cheered in support of the protest. The governor often travels by air between his Santa Monica home and Sacramento, using the municipal facility.

Eun Jin Jang told a crowd at a recent protest the she is worried that her 18-month-old baby will be left without healthcare as a consequence of programs being forced to shut their doors.

"I am a mother of an 18-month-old son and I can't imagine if I cannot pay the insurmountable hospital bills every time he receives medical services," she said. "But that is the reality of uninsured children ... the governor is attacking families and people who use services ... these are vital services that vulnerable families depend on."

The protest included a two-act skit in which youth leaders and students from various organizations acted out a scenario of how the cuts were affecting the classroom.

"This was not just a play; this happens everyday," said Carlos Cazares, a teacher at El Serrano High School who recently received a pink slip, indicating that he could be laid off. "They say our youth of color don't care about school, but that's not what I see on an everyday basis."

Jamesha Rucker, who attended the protest, said her 10-year-old daughter loves school and is sad and bored since she doesn't have the option to attend summer school. Officials of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) have said that cuts in state funding led them to cancel most summer-school programs.

Students attending grade school and high school are not the only ones feeling the crunch. Many parents and adults who were hoping to continue their education this year are feeling the aftershocks of the state's budget woes too.

"I wanted to go to college this summer but I can't, so I'm here today," Rucker said. "If I had a chance to talk to (the governor) today, I would ask him if he believes in God and to have mercy on us."

India Allen is a writer for the L.A. Watts Times.

Photos by India Allen