The Activist Beat with Rose Aguilar, host of Your Call on KALW in San Francisco is a weekly roundup of progressive activism that the mainstream media ignores, undercovers, or misrepresents. <\/em><\/p>\nActivists in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Fresno, and San Francisco took to the streets yesterday to speak out against Governor Jerry Brown\u2019s plan to slash another $1.4 billion in funding from social programs, colleges, MediCal, libraries, child care, and in-home supportive services for the elderly and disabled. <\/p>\n
The Health and Human Services Network of California broke down the numbers. The Governor is making an $842 million cut to MediCal; a $163 million cut to in-home supportive services, which would affect 250,000 low-income seniors and individuals with severe disabilities; and a $447 million cut to childcare, which would deny 62,000 children access to affordable care. <\/p>\n
According to the California Budget Foundation, the $946 million cut to CalWORKS will put tens of thousands of children at serious risk of homelessness. More than three-quarters of the Californians who receive cash assistance through this program are children. Most of the adults who receive assistance are single mothers. <\/p>\n
The Governor has also proposed eliminating school transportation funding. This will leave children living in the state\u2019s rural areas with no way to get to school. Jim Stewart, the Superintendent for the Southern Humboldt Unified School District, told California Watch that the district buses 650 out of 780 students every day. The district is scheduled to run out of money in 45 days. It just sent layoff notices to all 14 of its transportation employees, including 11 bus drivers. How will these kids get to school?<\/p>\n
Since 2008, California\u2019s health and human services have suffered a whopping $15 billion in cuts. <\/p>\n
The state is currently facing a $9 billion deficit. If the state fails to raise revenue, we\u2019ll see even deeper cuts in future years. Where will we draw the line? <\/p>\n
You\u2019ll notice that K-12 education was spared this time around. That\u2019s because the Governor is hoping voters support a ballot measure that would generate nearly $7 billion in tax increases. If Californians fail to vote for this increase in November, public schools might be forced to shorten the school year by three weeks. <\/p>\n
Groups are also hoping to put another oil tax initiative on the November ballot. The measure would create a 12.5 percent severance tax on oil and gas companies in California, raising an estimated $2 billion a year. That money would be used for higher education and the state\u2019s general fund. It\u2019s important to note and repeat that California is the only major oil producing state without an extraction tax. <\/p>\n
According to the LA Times, groups are also working to get signatures for a millionaires\u2019 tax, a corporate tax hike to fund environmental projects, and an income tax hike to fund K-12 education. <\/p>\n
Because it all seems to be getting worse, we tend to spend more time talking about the problems and not the solutions. <\/p>\n
The group California Tax Reform lays out a number of revenue streams that would raise $20 billion. They include eliminating corporate tax loopholes, taxing untaxed windfalls, ending tax breaks with no benefits, maintaining the vehicle license fee, and imposing taxes on the very wealthy. <\/p>\n
We have to continue asking some basic questions: What kind of state do we want to live in? Do we want to live in a state that continues to shred its safety net for its poorest citizens? Do we want to live in a state that claims to be so broke, it can\u2019t afford bus services for school kids living in rural areas? <\/p>\n
If politicians representing one of the wealthiest states in the country fail to agree on a plan to raise revenue soon, we will continue on this downward spiral. <\/p>\n
We have the solutions to get out of this mess. The problem is, we don\u2019t have the political will. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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The Activist Beat with Rose Aguilar, host of Your Call on KALW in San Francisco is a weekly roundup of progressive activism that the mainstream media ignores, undercovers, or misrepresents. <\/em><\/p>\n