December 13, 2011

The governor announced that almost $1 billion in trigger midyear spending cuts to health and social services, K-12 schools, and higher education will take place because revenue is on track to be significantly below predictions. These cuts are the result of a budget mechanism the California legislature created last year which requires automatic trigger cuts if the state fails to collect $4 billion in additional revenue by the end of the year. 

The spending cuts will affect children and families across California.  The cuts include:

• $327 million in cuts to K-12 schools;
• $200 million in cuts to the public universities;
• $102 million in cuts to community colleges;
• $100 million in cuts to In-Home Supportive Services;
• $100 million in cuts to services for people with developmental disabilities;
• $23 million in cuts to child care programs
• $15.9 million in cuts to local libraries; and
• $8.6 million in cuts to Medi-Cal.

These trigger cuts are in addition to billions of cuts that have been made to vital education, health and human services in California over the past several years.  The trigger cuts hurt our state’s most vulnerable children and families and further weaken our social safety net at a time when Californians are already struggling.