State budget slashes health, school funds

<p>The chief of the Petaluma Health Care District pulls no punches when expressing his feelings about some elements of the recently adopted 2009-2010 state budget, such as significant reductions to health-care programs for children, the poor and the elderly.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>“I’m outraged by the cuts to the Healthy Families program,” said Daymon Doss, the PHCD’s executive director. “And any significant changes in Medi-Cal affect Petaluma Valley Hospital, which has the second highest Medi-Cal admissions among hospitals in Sonoma County.</p><p>“The programs that get hammered the most are the ones for people who need the most help.”</p><p>Overall, the budget was about what he expected, though.</p><p>“There really weren’t any big surprises, and I’m still waiting to see how some of the cuts will affect Petaluma,” he said.</p><p>In February, the state eliminated dental and optical care for adult recipients of Medi-Cal, a health-care program for the poor. The budget that was approved by lawmakers on July 24 eliminates $1.3 billion in Medi-Cal funding and cuts $144 million in funding for the Healthy Families program, which serves children without medical insurance. This represents more than one-third of the total annual funding for Healthy Families.</p><p>On Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used his line-item veto authority to make additional cuts, including a further reduction of $61 million in Medi-Cal funding and an additional cut of $50 million in Healthy Families funding.</p><p>Before Schwarzenegger made the additional cuts, Kathie Powell, executive director of the Petaluma Health Center, said that its Healthy Families program could lose about $25,000 per year, which would require it to serve about 60 less children.</p><p>“The number might not sound as if it’s very significant, but these kids need health care, and with flu season coming up, some will need to be treated,” she said.</p><p>Katy Hillenmeyer, spokesperson for Petaluma Valley Hospital, also expressed concern about cuts in the Healthy Families program.</p><p>“When I look at the cuts, one of my greatest concerns involves dis-enrollment of children from the Healthy Families program because it affects the most vulnerable members of the community,” she said. “The other main thing is the cuts in dental care. Our dental clinic serves Petaluma residents and other residents of Sonoma County.”</p><p>Doss says that at budget time, health-care programs for people in need are particularly vulnerable.</p><p>“Unlike education and many other fields, health and human services doesn’t have many advocates,” he said. “And so, the Legislature has some flexibility in cutting services and reducing costs. As a result, the poor are affected by a disproportionate share of the total cutbacks.”</p><p>Still, the state budget cut $6 billion from K-12 schools and community colleges over the next two years. The effect on Petaluma schools is not clear, although many administrators say that it seems to be close to their prior estimates.</p><p>“It looks very much in line with what we had based our budget on,” said Steve Bolman, deputy superintendent of business and administration for Petaluma City Schools. “We had anticipated the worst-case scenario, and that’s what the budget appears to be.”</p><p>School districts are given 45 days to make adjustments to their 2009-2010 budget.</p><p>“The way they shifted cuts around is befuddling, said Scott Mahoney, superintendent of the Waugh School District. “At this point, none of us know for sure what will happen to our budgets.” </p><p>“I don’t see that we’ll need to make any further changes,” said Diane Zimmerman, superintendent of the Old Adobe Union School District.</p><p>The state budget gives school districts the option of trimming the school year by five days.</p><p>“We’ve already eliminated three staff development days for teachers, and three days for other employees,” Bolman said. “We haven’t taken the step of cutting the number of school days, but we might need to discuss it if the economic situation continues.”</p><p>“To cut school days, districts would need to work with employee groups, and very few districts will do this for this year. But the situation for districts will be much more dire next year,” Mahoney said.</p><p>“We have talked about cutting school days, but haven’t taken any action,” Zimmerman added. “We don’t want to reduce the number of school days for children, but if the economic situation doesn’t get any better, we will need to re-evaluate it.”</p><p>Santa Rosa Junior College, like public school districts, made budget cuts based on what the state budget was likely to contain. This included trimming 70 classes from the fall offerings at the SRJC Petaluma campus.</p><p>“Generally, our estimates seem to be pretty close,” said Doug Roberts, SRJC’s vice president of business services. “Matriculation funding has been hit pretty severely, and the state budget could affect students’ access to counselors and programs for disabled students, so we’re looking for ways to mitigate those areas.</p><p>“Hopefully, federal stimulus funding will help us, but we’ll believe it when we see the money.”</p><p>(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com)</p>