IHSS RALLIES SET FOR 2/26 THU AM ACROSS CALIF & THE STATE CAPITOL

SACRAMENTO  - The second disability rights related events marking the 100th day in office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will occur February 26th, Thursday morning, with rallies in support of In-Home Supportive Services scheduled at the State Capitol West Steps (facing 10th Street) and at several other cities across California. The ralllies are expected to draw thousands of people with disabilities and seniors, families, community organizations and workers across the state.  The protest is being organized by the California Homecare Council and California Cares.

The first event this week was the Disability Rights/Issues Statewide Townhall Telemeeting, held at 1 PM Wednesday today, which featured budget briefing and questions and answers by California Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill and staff analyst Shawn Martin.  Close to 40 sites linked by conference call lines with over 300 persons total at those locations, participated in the 7th telemeeting, which is meant to promote mobilization of the disability communities across California.

The Republican Governor was sworn into office on November 17th, after a historic recall election on October 7th ousted Gray Davis from office.

Governor Schwarzenegger is proposing major cuts to In-Home Supportive Services in the current California budget that went into effect July 1, 2003 - and more cuts to that program and other services for children and adults with developmental and other disabilities, in the budget for 2004-2005.  Among the Governor's proposals include the elimination of a major part of the IHSS program that allows parents of minor children with disabilities, and wife or husband of a spouse who has disabilities to be there in-home care worker.

* Advocates say the Governor's proposals to make major cuts to IHSS, which serves over 300,000 children and adults with disabilities and seniors, is a major attack on the rights of people with developmental and other disabilities.
* Advocates point to other proposed major budget reductions in Medi-Cal, community-based services funded through regional centers, suspension of cost of living adjustments for SSI/SSP as examples of what they say is a "full scale attack" on people with developmental and other disabilities.
* Schwarzenegger Administration officials have said that the proposed reductions are reasonable and necessary to balance the budget in times of fiscal crisis and that the increases in costs for programs - such as Medi-Cal are not "sustainable" and promised real reforms.
* Some advocates dispute that and also say that the situation is compounded by the  continued unresolved crisis in workers' compensation which has driven up the cost of employer premiums for insurance and has pushed hundreds of community providers to the brink of closure. Advocates say the crisis' impact has resulted in a "explosion" of unreimbursed State mandated costs to thousands of community organizations, draining millions of dollars away from services for people with disabilities in order for those community organizations to pay for insurance premiums.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA RALLY LOCATIONS
Where:   SACRAMENTO - State Capitol, West Steps (facing 10th Street)
When:    10:30 AM to 12:00 noon  (same time as San Francisco)

Where:   SAN FRANCISCO - State Office Building, 505 Van Ness (at McAllister)  94102
When:    10:30 AM to 12:00 noon  (same time as Sacramento)

Where:    STOCKTON - State Office Building,  31 East Channel Street, 95202
When:     11:30 AM to 1:00 PM (same time as Los Angeles)

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RALLY LOCATIONS
Where:    LOS ANGELES - Ronald Reagan Office Bldg
                300 South Spring Street (Governor's Field Office)
When:     11:30 AM to 1:00 PM  (same time as Stockton)

Where:    SAN BERNARDINO - State Government Center, 464 W 4th Street
When:     09:00 AM to -10:30 AM (note different starting and ending time from the other sites)

Where:    SAN DIEGO - Governor's Field Office, 1350 Front Street 92101
When:     10:00 AM to 12:00 noon (note different starting time from the other sites)

OTHER DISABILITY RIGHTS EVENTS PLANNED FOR COMING WEEK
* Disability Rights Voter Mobilization/Education Meeting - set for March 1, Monday evening, 6:30 PM to about 8 PM  at Alta California Regional Center (Brenda Smith Conference Room), 2135 Butano Dr, Sacramento, is the third major disability rights events marking the 100th day in office of the Governor.  The training will help lay the groundwork for organizing people with developmental and other disabilities, and their families, community organizations who provide services and supports, workers, and other advocates to register to vote, to actually vote in the coming elections, and how to mobilize and unify disability communities across California to hold policy makers accountable on disability issues.  The program will feature representatives from Project Vote Smart will be there as well as the California Disability Community Advocacy Network. The training is sponsored  by Alta California Regional Center. For more information, contact Rob
Biggar at 916/978-6276.  [see CDCAN Capitol Report #38-2004 later today for more details]

CONTRIBUTIONS NEEDED TO CONTINUE ADVOCACY EFFORT
VERY VERY URGENT!!!! Many thanks again,  to the friends, people with disabilities and their families, community organizations and others who have sent in generous and needed contributions and donations (individual thank you letters will be coming soon!). However, until grant funding is finalized, contributions from people and organizations is still very urgently needed to keep the advocacy efforts going for the next several months. Please make check or money order  to:  California Disability Community Action Network/Marty Omoto (or abbreviate CDCAN). CDCAN is not yet a non-profit organization (work on this will have this happen in within the next few months) Send contributions to: California Disability Community Action Network,  1225 8th Street Suite #480, Sacramento, CA  95814.  A method to contribute by credit card (through Paypal) is being set up on our website, at www.cdcan.org.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS ACTION ALERT
* This is a NON-PARTISAN online news report  of the non-partisan California Disability Community Action Network, a link to thousands of Californians with developmental and other disabilities, their families, community organizations and providers, direct care and other workers, and other advocates. These reports (formerly the CA UCP Capitol Reports) are for all of them.  This report goes to thousands of people with developmental and other disabilities, their families, community providers and organizations, direct care and other workers and advocates across California. In addition it also goes to news organizations, state and local government officials and staff.
* If you would like to get on this distribution (and conversely, get off of it) please send an email with that  request to:  martyomoto@rcip.com. Sharing information is part of our organizing effort. Please feel free to forward or copy  this (attribution is nice). We're all in this together!
Marty Omoto, director/organizer
California Disability Community Action Network
1225 8th Street Suite 480 Sacramento, CA 95814   VOICE PHONE: 916/446-0013
FAX number: 916/446-0026        email: martyomoto@rcip.com
INFORMATION HOTLINE TOLL FREE NUMBER: 1-877-260-0267 (you cannot leave messages)
SAME INFO HOTLINE FOR SACRAMENTO AREA:  486-4652
WEBSITE (under reconstruction - available soon!): www.cdcan.org