An Unraveling Lifeline

Don’t try to tell 62-year-old Elizabeth Cordova of Inglewood, a disabled woman who lives on about $9,000 a year, that she won’t get an expected state payment because of disputes in Sacramento over whether to reopen budget negotiations and whether to close a huge deficit by cutting more billions or raising taxes.

Cordova and 384,000 other aged, blind or disabled people in California just want their money. They don’t care about insider details of the political foolishness that is preventing passage of a state budget nearly two months after it was due. Just send their checks.

There has been little outside pressure to get the budget passed because most programs continue to be financed automatically. But now, the stalemate is preventing the state Franchise Tax Board from distributing $116 million in an annual payment to the aged, blind or disabled who participate in a program of assistance for homeowners and renters. (Their monthly benefits are not affected.) The annual payment averages just $302 but it’s important to people who struggle to get by.

The problem is that Republicans in the Assembly refuse to vote for the budget because it contains a tax increase, because the governor will not open new budget negotiations and because he will not cut additional billions.

The measure passed the Senate but froze in the lower house when no GOP member would support it. Majority Democrats need at least four Republicans to get the 54 votes needed to pass the spending bill.

This budget is no work of art. That’s the reality of trying to plug a $23.6-billion deficit. But it is irresponsible for Republicans to block it any longer. Gov. Gray Davis and the Democrats have moved small steps toward the Republican position. So there is little that Davis or the Democrats can do now other than tear up the budget bill and start over. That probably would not gain anything. Davis has told departments to prepare spending cuts of 20% for next year. The Senate is creating a commission to study fiscal reform to get at the problem of ongoing deficits. Davis can veto spending items when the budget reaches him. Other cuts can be made after the budget passes.

Until then, Elizabeth Cordova and increasing numbers of others will suffer. It’s time to get the checks in the mail.