CDCAN News Report Gov Appoints Degadillo As Director of DDS

cdcan NEWS REPORT
Report #045-2007 April 5, 2007 - Thursday
To respond to this email, reply to: martyomoto@rcip.com CDCAN website: www.cdcan.us

CDCAN TOWNHALL TELEMEETING
* TOWNHALL WITH ASSEMBLY BUDGET CONSULTANT
* FOCUS ON DDS, IHSS, SSI/SSP
* BUDGET SUBCOMMITTEE HEARINGS SET

SACRAMENTO - The CDCAN "Advocacy Without Borders" Disablity RIghts Townhall Telemeeting this afternoon (April 5 at 1:00 PM) will focus attention on upcoming budget issues that will be heard next week by the Senate and Assembly Budget Subcommittees on Health and Human Services. CDCAN Townhall Telemeetings attract often several hundreds of people from across the State - and more listen to audio recordings on the CDCAN website and are held to help bring public policy making to people in communities with limited resources to travel.

The March 29th townhall telemeeting on the implementation of SB 1270 attracted over 325 people, and the townhall telemeeting yesterday (April 4) focusing on accessible and affordable housing had well over 200 people. That townhall featured top regional officials from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development [go to the CDCAN website at www.cdcan.us to listen to audio recordings of both telemeetings]

Assembly Budget Committee Consultant Scheduled for April 5th
Nicole Vazquez, the Assembly Budget Committee consultant who analyzes and reviews budget issues relating to human services (including developmental services, in-home supportive services and SSI/SSP) is the guest speaker who will provide an update on the hearing next week - and also answer questions and hear comments on those and other budget related issues.

The Assembly and Senate budget subcommittees dealing with health and human services issues have scheduled public hearings to review the Governor's proposed State Budget which covers the state budget year that begins July 1, 2007. Several hearings have been held covering Medi-Cal, mental health, aging, education issues. The impact and importance of the hearings scheduled will depend on the specifics in the hearing agendas, which are not usually available until a few days before the hearing date. .

Subcommittees Play Important Part of State Budget Process
The subcommittees play an important role in the budget process - though this year many important decisions will be held off until after the Governor releases revisions to his proposed budget in mid-May (referred to as the "May Revise").
That revision will likely have new proposals that could mean new or larger spending reductions, if projections of State revenues continues to fall dramatically, according to the non-partisan Legislative Analyst Office.

Key Budget Hearings Impacting IHSS, Regional Centers, Mental Health, Aging
The budget issues scheduled for hearing through May deal with In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), Medi-Cal, regional centers, developmental centers, public health, aging, CalWORKs and other departments. All hearing dates, times and budget issues scheduled are subject to change. Assembly and Senate Budget Subcommittee Hearings impacting IHSS, regional centers/developmental centers and SSI/SSP are: [a full report on other hearings will be sent out in a CDCAN report later today]

In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) Budget Issues
April 11 (Assembly) and April 19 (Senate)
Regional Centers and Developmental Centers Budget Issues
April 9 (Senate) and April 11 (Assembly)
SSI/SSP Budget Issues
April 19 (Senate) May 2 (Assembly)

Senate Health and Human Services Budget Subcommittee Members
* The 3 members Senate Budget Subcommittee #3 on Health, Human Services, Labor & Veteran Affairs are:
Democrats (2): Elaine Alquist (Democrat - San Jose, 13th District) - chair, and Alex Padilla (Democrat - Pacoima, 20th District)
Republican (1): Dave Cogdill (Republican - Modesto, 14th District).
* None of the members of the subcommittee this year served on this panel last year. Wes Chesbro, who chaired the full Senate Budget Committee and the subcommittee, was forced out of the State Senate due to term limits.
* Sen. Denise Ducheny chaired the subcommittee last year, and now chairs the full Senate Budget Committee. The Republican member from last year - Sen. George Runner, is not returning to this subcommittee.
* Alquist and Cogdill, who both previously served in the Assembly, never served before on the health and human services budget subcommittee in the Senate or the similar subcommittee in the Assembly. Sen. Padilla never served in either house until his election in November and swearing in December.

Assembly Health & Human Services Budget Subcommittee Members
* The 6 members of the Budget Subcommittee #1 on Health and Human Services are::
Democrats (4): Patty Berg (Democrat - Eureka, 1st District) the subcommittee chair, Jim Beall (Democrat - San Jose, 24th District), Hector De La Torre (Democrat - Southgate, 50th District) and Edward Hernandez (Democrat - West Covina, 57th District)
Republican (2): John Benoit (Republican - Riverside, 64th District) and Bill Maze (Republican - Visalia, 34th District)
Note: John Laird, the chair of the Assembly Budget Committee, is the Democratic alternate member for this subcommittee, and Roger Niello is the Republican alternate.
* De La Torre was chair of the subcommittee last year and is the only returning member (either house) to this subcommittee.
* Jim Beall and Edward Hernandez are both newly elected members, taking office in December.

LIST OF ASSEMBLY SENATE BUDGET HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES BUDGET HEARINGS
DEALING WITH DEVELOPMENTAL SERVICES, IHSS AND SSI/SSP
* Schedules of any legislative hearing is always subject to change, including time change and room change.
* All hearings are open to the public - and hearings at least through the first week of May allows public testimony.
* Hearings after that usually only allow testimony on new budget items proposed in the Governor's budget revisions
* Some of the hearings are televised and can be viewed on Cal Channel or on the internet Cal Channel site.
* Details of each of the hearings (agendas) are not yet available.
* Competing for time and attention are many regular committee hearings with many bills scheduled for hearing that impact people with disabilities and seniors and others ranging from aging issues to special education to health, to IHSS, etc. See separate CDCAN report.
* A more complete schedule of other budget committee hearings impacting people with disabilities, seniors, etc will be released in a special CDCAN report later today or tomorrow.

APRIL 9, 2007 (MON)
SENATE BUDGET SUBCOMMITTEE #3 ON HEALTH, HUMAN SERVICES,
LABOR AND VETERAN AFFAIRS
1:00 PM - State Capitol - Room 4203 [note time change from morning]
Department of Developmental Services (Budget Item 4300)
* Community-based programs - selected issues
* Developmental Centers - selected issues
PRIORITY: HIGH PRIORITY

Also note:
ASSEMBLY BUDGET SUBCOMMITTEE #1 ON HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
4:00 PM
State Capitol - Room 127
Department of Mental Health (Budget Item 4440)
PRIORITY: HIGH PRIORITY

APRIL 11, 2007 (WED)
ASSEMBLY BUDGET SUBCOMMITTEE #1 ON HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
1:30 PM
State Capitol - Room 4202 [note room change]
Department of Developmental Services (Budget Item 4300)
* includes regional centers, developmental centers
Department of Social Services (Budget Item 5180)
* In-Home Supportive Services
PRIORITY: HIGH PRIORITY

APRIL 19, 2007 (THU)
SENATE BUDGET SUBCOMMITTEE #3 ON HEALTH, HUMAN SERVICES,
LABOR AND VETERAN AFFAIRS
09:30 AM or upon adjournment of Senate Floor session
State Capitol - Room 4203
Department of Social Services (Budget Item 5180)
* In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS)
* Adult Protective Services
* SSI/SSP (Supplemental Security Income/State Supplemental Payment)
* Community Care Licensing
Also: Health and Human Services Agency (Budget Item 0530), Office of System Integration
PRIORITY: HIGH PRIORITY (italic)

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The California Disability Community Action Network is a non-partisan network connecting tens of thousands of Californians in every community, including people of color, people of every type of disability, including people with physical disabilities, people with developmental and other disabilities, people with traumatic brain and other injuries, people with mental health needs, seniors, people with MS, Alzheimer's and others, and families, community organizations and providers, in-home, direct care and other workers, and other advocates.

MANY THANKS to Training Toward Self Reliance, UCP, California NAELA, Californians for Disability Rights, Inc (CDR), Parents Helping Parents, Arriba, Strategies To Empower People, Parents Helping Parents, Asian American parents groups, Resources for Independent Living and many other Independent Living Centers, several regional centers, People First chapters, IHSS workers, other self advocacy and family support groups, developmental center families, and hundreds of individuals. Thanks also to partnerships and the good people with the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, and also the Department of Health Services, the Department of Developmental Services, Department of Social Services and the CA Health and Human Services Agency and other agencies, and the State Legislature and staff, the Legislative Analyst Office.