ANAHEIM : Disabled Urge Budget Cut Protest

Disabled people joined forces this week to protest Gov. George Deukmejian’s proposed budget cuts by urging Orange County residents to call their state lawmakers and voice their opposition.

Employees at the Dayle McIntosh Center for the Disabled in Anaheim, many of whom are themselves disabled, asked local officials and supporters to lend a hand at the telephone campaign by calling state representatives.

“There’s been a real swell of support,” said Brenda Permo, executive director of the center, who estimated that at least 100 people have participated in the campaign. The center prepared a one-page fact sheet detailing the budget cuts and their effect on the center in Anaheim.

The center has operated in Anaheim for 13 years, helping disabled people from throughout the county to get job training, find work and live independently.

The proposed budget cuts would trim about $375,000 off the center’s annual budget of $1 million, which could cause the center to lay off about one-third of its employees, said Premo.

“If you take away a center, you take away all the structural support and you’re going to put people into institutions,” said Premo. “And unless we’re going to let people die, or put them on the streets, it’s going to cost a lot more.”

Premo said that institutionalizing disabled people in board-and-care and nursing homes would cost about twice as much as it does for a disabled person to live independently with the part-time care of a nursing aide.

There are 25 Dayle McIntosh Centers in the state, and about 15 are expected to close if the proposed budget cuts are passed, Premo said. The Anaheim location, primarily because of local private support, would not be closed, officials said.