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Protection & Advocacy Inc. Advancing the Rights of Californians with Disabilities |
LEGISLATION & PUBLIC 1029 J Street, Suite 150 |
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Principles for Addressing the State Budget’s Impact on Individuals with DisabilitiesAdopted |
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Protection & Advocacy, Inc. (PAI) is committed to ensuring that people with disabilities have access to services and supports that enable them to live in the community. This can only be achieved when necessary health care, habilitative and other safety net programs are preserved—even in difficult budget times. We recognize the fiscal challenges the State faces but also believe that tight fiscal times can result in creative “outside the box” thinking that will not only result in economic efficiencies but eliminate out- dated models of providing services. We believe that the current fiscal crisis provides a real opportunity to increase federal funding for many of the services provided to Californians with disabilities thereby ensuring that State accesses as many dollars as it is entitled to receive. These Budget Principles contain our recommendations for enhancing revenues, addressing shortfalls and ensuring access for people with disabilities to community services and supports. I. Maintain
Current Program Options and Funding Levels
A. Public
Benefits and Services 1. Reductions
in state, county, district or regional center services that eliminate
entitlements to services or result in less services or services of lesser
quality will be opposed. 2. No reduction
in subsistence and health care benefits to persons with disabilities,
including SSI/ 3. Consumer-run alternatives, peer and self-help groups and programs, independent living centers, self-determination and self-directed funding, are essential, effective community services that must be continued. 4. Effective programs for persons with disabilities must focus upon prevention, rather than crisis management, coercive intervention and institutionalization. Priority should be given to funding for preventative programs including, but not limited to, Early Start, EPSDT, Independent Living, Supported Living and Mental Health Demonstration Grants. B. Independent
Advocacy Services 1. Rights and
due process protections afforded persons with disabilities under state law
must be maintained. 2. Critical
independent advocacy services must be maintained, including the Office of
Patients’ Rights (OPR), the Office of Clients’ Rights Advocacy (OCRA) and
other similar entities. C. Special
Education 1. Students
with disabilities have a right to free and appropriate public education in
the least restrictive environment. Funding to provide these services and protect
these rights must be maintained. D. Community
Integration and the Olmstead Mandate 1. Self-determination
and community integration for persons with disabilities are civil rights that
shall not be compromised. The provision of community living options,
including housing, is not only cost-effective, but also mandated by the
Olmstead decision. 2. 3. Funding for
new institutional construction must cease. 4. Persons with disabilities have the right to quality services and supports, which cannot be provided absent adequate and appropriate compensation for direct care staff. Persons who provide services and supports to persons with disabilities deserve to make a living wage. Wages and benefits for direct care staff in the community should be comparable to wages and benefits of direct care staff at developmental centers and state institutions where consumers receiving services have similar levels of need. Where economic conditions in a particular geographic area are used to justify additional compensation for staff working in state institutions, such additional compensation should also be offered to direct care staff in the community. II. Achieving State Budgetary
Cost Savings
A. Balancing the
budget must entail a combination of revenue increases and expenditure
reductions that do not unfairly target the low-income end of the economic
spectrum. B. The state
shall seek to achieve savings by maximizing coordination between programs,
for example, between the Departments of Mental Health, Developmental Services
and Education, rather than by cutting essential services. Strategies to provide C. D. Before any
cuts/reductions or fundamental changes are made to disabilities service
systems, the State should develop comprehensive plans to close state and
local institutions and the operational costs savings and the revenues from
the sale or lease of the land shall be dedicated to address any project
budget shortfall.
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Policy #1027.01 |
Adopted
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