State's savings may cost seniors By JAKE HENSHAW SACRAMENTO -- Senior citizens in the Salinas area and across the state may face cutbacks in important state services, from health and home care to tax assistance. In his 2005-06 budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed cuts in programs for low-income seniors, including suspending cost-of-living increases in supplemental-income aid and imposing a cap on dental care and premiums for health services in Medi-Cal for the first time. For the second time, Schwarzenegger has proposed rolling back to minimum wage the state's contribution to the pay of workers who help seniors with daily cooking, cleaning and other chores so they can remain in their homes -- the program known as In Home Supportive Services. Finally, he is trying to scale back a senior renters' assistance program that serves lower-income residents and to switch senior homeowners from a grant to a loan-deferral program to help with property taxes. The changes could affect hundreds of thousands of seniors and may save $200 million or more, though exact totals are hard to determine since some of these programs serve more than seniors, some of who also receive more than one type of service. Disabled adults of all ages also participate in many of the targeted programs and would face the same cutbacks. But administration officials and their supporters said that these proposals are among the tough choices that the governor has to make with the state facing a $9 billion deficit. "It is an attempt to strike a balance," said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the Department of Finance. 'A triple whammy' Skeptics, however, said the proposals individually can hurt many seniors and together almost amount to 'piling on' seniors who are in multiple programs. "This is a triple whammy for some seniors," said Anthony Wright of Health Access, a nonprofit health care advocacy group. Teresa Sullivan, executive director of the Alliance on Aging in Monterey County, said the cutback in state wages for In-Home Supportive Services' workers may be shortsighted because it could cut the number of workers. "Ultimately what happens is these (seniors') health and safety is jeopardized, and they are at greater risk of being institutionalized, which ends up costing the taxpayer more money," Sullivan said. Assemblyman Simón Salinas, D-Salinas, said a financial squeeze by the state is particularly tough on seniors who often aren't able to make up losses by getting a job. "They can't go back to work and supplement their income, so they are at the mercy of what the state is going to do," Salinas said. He urged a compromise that might withhold COLAs but fully fund in-home care workers, and Mark Beach, a spokesman for the American Association of Retired People, said his organization will seek ways to minimize budget impacts. "I think we can give the administration the benefit of the doubt that they're not picking on seniors," Beach said. Spreading the pain Administration officials agreed, arguing that the governor is trying to protect health and social services from further losses by spreading the pain across the budget. They cited, for example, his highly criticized bid to restrain education funding. The officials added that Schwarzenegger is promoting a prescription-drug discount program and is offering greater annual savings to many senior homeowners with his property-tax loan deferral program than they now get with the grant assistance. The governor's proposed budget also allows counties to make up for the state cut in wage payments for IHSS workers, his staff said. "Our proposal should not equate to (the view that) we think people should be making minimum wage," said Scott Carney of the Health and Human Services Agency. But Pat Leary, the budget expert for the California State Association of Counties, said counties already are giving up $1.3 billion both this year and in 2005-06 to help balance the budget under a deal reached last year. "A lot of counties, even if they wanted to, are not going to have the resources" to make up the cutback, Leary said. |