Disabled Centers Prepare to Close in Budget Crisis

Operators of service centers for the mentally retarded and developmentally disabled said Tuesday that they are making plans to close their doors beginning March 15 unless the Legislature and governor can break an impasse that is holding up $24.6 million owed to them.

“Operators of three regional centers have indicated they will be shutting down in March. The rest will probably follow suit in early April,” said Bob Baldo, head of a regional center in Redding and president of the state Assn. of Regional Center Agencies.

There are 21 regional centers statewide, serving about 90,000 Californians who suffer mental retardation or some form of developmental disability requiring daily care. The centers employ professional staffs that act as go-betweens for families of the disabled and providers of services, such as doctors, nurses, day-care facilities and special schools. The centers do not house patients.

The money the centers need to complete the last three months of the current budget year has become entangled in a dispute over whether the Deukmejian Administration should be allowed to borrow the money or be forced to raise revenue through a tax increase or some other means.

The Administration says there is only about $3 million remaining in the treasury that is not accounted for, so it therefore cannot provide the money from general tax revenues.

As an alternative, the Administration wants to borrow from the State Contractors’ License Fund and repay the money during the next fiscal year. Democrats rejected the idea on the grounds that the state cannot afford to borrow from next year’s budget.

Assembly Democrats want the Republican governor to acknowledge that the state is broke and to come up with a long-term solution to the funding problem.

Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-San Jose), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said Tuesday, “Borrowing means that tomorrow’s budget problems get even worse.”

Vasconcellos contended that Deukmejian, who has announced that he will not seek reelection in 1990, is following the path of other lame-duck governors who have “tried to borrow their way out” of budget difficulties. “It’s silly, it’s stupid, it’s irresponsible,” Vasconcellos said.

Lois Wallace, assistant director of the Department of Finance and an Administration spokeswoman, said Vasconcellos is pressuring for a tax increase. “Anything he can do to try to create the impression that there is a need for a tax increase, he will do,” Wallace said.

Wallace added that the regional centers program was not fully funded at the beginning of the budget year because the governor and Administration expected the federal government to pick up part of the cost. The federal government refused to do so.

Wallace said the state is appealing the federal decision and argued that the funding problem has nothing to do with a shortage of money in the treasury. As a tactical matter, Wallace said, fully financing the program would weaken California’s case “because it would look like we are taking care of the problem ourselves.”

Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), author of the legislation to provide emergency funding to the centers, said he is attempting to persuade Vasconcellos to yield on his opposition to the loan. “To hold the regional centers hostage and allow them to close their doors is wrong,” said Seymour, who reported no progress in working out a compromise.

Complicating the issue is a provision written into the current year’s budget holding up 25% of the Department of Developmental Services administrative budget if the regional centers are not fully funded. The provision was added to the budget by lawmakers who feared that there would be problems obtaining federal funding.

One legislative staffer, who asked not to be identified, said, “The line has been drawn in the dirt (separating the two sides), and it gets deeper every day.”

Meanwhile, operators of the regional centers said they are getting desperate.

“It’s just agony to have to go through this,” Baldo said.

He said that if money is not forthcoming, centers will be forced to either lay off their staffs and shut their doors or try to operate with skeleton staffs. He said the latter course could lead to lawsuits if there are emergencies and the centers do not have the staff to respond.

“Parents and families are now beginning to get frustrated, angry and, above all, fearful,” said Diane Anand, director of the Lanterman Regional Center, which serves Los Angeles. Seven of the state’s 21 regional centers are in Los Angeles County.

Anand said most of the people served by the regional centers are severely mentally retarded. “The people we serve are very disabled. They can’t look after themselves. They can’t live on their own. We are not talking about people who can wait three or six months for a federal appeal to be decided,” she said.