WELCOME TO MIDLAND TEXAS GOP

Despite the recession, the state  response to HIV – along with the assurance of ample resources to accomplish comprehensive access to HIV prevention and treatment, fully fund AIDS research and strengthen underlying health systems – cannot be compromise while waiting for the economy to spark.  Present economic downturn across the US, budget cuts is not surprising. However, this fact doesn’t lessen the sting of the $85 million budget cuts aimed at AIDS programs across California. Hardest hit in the cuts are HIV education and prevention programs, testing and counseling services, home services and early intervention services. The Governor has acknowledged the difficult decision to cut AIDS programs. The governor’s budget proposal would cut $12 million from the AIDS drug assistance program and eliminate $68 million that funds counseling, testing, prevention and education, epidemiology and housing programs.   The proposed cuts are unprecedented and will essentially eliminate the Office of AIDS in California. In addition to eliminating state funding, agencies will also not be able to receive federal funding that requires state matching.

California’s most vulnerable population has its services on the chopping block again in the latest round of proposed state budget cuts. Deprived families relying on welfare and Medi-Cal, children of low-income families, and individuals suffering from HIV or AIDS were all part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s May budget revise reductions. The proposal also includes to cut all general fund contributions to up to 220 state parks, which could include the La Purisima Mission and parks along the Gaviota Coast. The governor’s proposed elimination of the CalWorks program is expected to affect 3,500 families in Sta. Barbra County as reported by Kathy Gallagher, the director of the County Social Services Department. The CalWORKs program provides temporary financial assistance and employment focused services to families with minor children who have income and property below State maximum limits for their family size. Most able-bodied aided parents are also required to participate in the CalWORKs GAIN employment services program. Adhering to the considered budget cuts would make California the only state and the first world country of civilized nations in the world to not have a catch program for the poor families.  Abolishing the welfare program, which gives cash aid and services to qualified needy California families, would placing the load directly on the county, making such idea totally wild.

The governor’s revised budget could mean $1.8 million in cuts to Riverside County to public health care programs for low-income Californians living with HIV/AIDS. With a single stroke of his blue pencil, Governor Schwarzenegger has terminated the state´s AIDS programs and, along with it, the lives of some of the state’s most helpless citizens. Governor Schwarzenegger’s one-sided decision to essentially dismantle the state’s lifesaving HIV/AIDS programs will cost lives, endanger the public’s health and constitutes negligence.  The state´s ability to identify people living with HIV AIDS is now badly maimed—creating an enormous impediment to the prevention of new infections and linking those who need it to treatment. Not only will the Governor´s cold-blooded funding cuts devastate those living with HIV/AIDS who rely on the services the state provides to stay alive and healthy, but today’s cuts also pose a serious threat to our shared responsibility to combat the spread of HIV in California.