Shouting "No cuts" and carrying 25 cardboard coffins, hundreds of people marched to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Office in Los Angeles on June 22 to demand for a stop of budget cuts to health and human service programs.
The cardboard coffins symbolize the devastating impacts of the proposed budget cuts to California's programs in health care, education and human service.
Hundreds of parents, seniors, families, providers and persons with disabilities first rallied in the courtyard behind the Kenneth Hahn County Hall of Administration and then marched to the Governor's Office.
They held signs such as "Don't put lives at risk", "Dollars for schools, not more prisons," "Moratorium on death penalty to save state one billion dollars" and "Stop cuts in nursing homes" and shouted slogans to show their worries and anger over the proposed budget cuts that will affect their daily lives.
Ron Warren, a demonstrator who worked at the Los Angeles County government, told Xinhua that he opposed Governor Schwarzenegger's budget plan. He said the state should tax the wealthy but not the poor. Therefore he supports raising tax for the rich people, but opposes sales tax increase and cuts to health care and other services.
Another demonstrator, David Mathland, said he was there to urge the governor not to cut the CalWORKS program which will benefit about 40,000 people in Los Angeles County. Statewide, there could be 120,000 people.
He said there are many other ways to balance the budget, but to cut service is not a choice. The poor and disabled need help and their benefits should not become targets to be cut.
Raman Ageder, who works at the Department of Public Social Services of Los Angeles County, said he opposes the budget cuts to social services because the proposed cuts will have a devastating impact on about 2 million people.
He said the public social services program will help people who lost their jobs and their incomes to be independent and find other jobs to stand up on their feet. The proposed cuts will make those people more miserable.
Several hundred people also signed a giant postcard to Governor Schwarzenegger to urge him to find other ways to balance the 24.3 billion dollars of deficit but not the cuts on the poor and disabled.
A "computer action center" was set up on the scene where people can send their personal stories to legislators and the governor, reminding them that California needs a responsible budget solution that chooses health over sickness, care over cruelty and practicality over ideology.
Organizers of the rally, the Stop the Cuts! Coalition, is an alliance of community organizations and organized labor fighting for a fairer state budget that meets the needs of the communities and workers.
They encouraged participants to use their cell phones to photograph the rally scenes and send them by e-mail to Governor Schwarzenegger as a digital way to put pressure on him.
They also urged legislators to oppose devastating cuts to those public social service programs and instead support a fair, responsible budget that makes smart choices and gives every family a chance.
"We heard the voice of the voters loud and clear, and they want us to go all out and make those cuts," the governor said last month. "You try not to make cuts that you feel would be devastating to some people, but now we have to do that," he added.
The governor promised to roll back services. "It'll mean cuts, cuts and cuts, and living within our means."
The proposed cuts include dismantling the state's Welfare to Work program, eliminating grants to lower-income college students, cutting state park funding and eliminating a program that provides medical coverage to 928,000 children and teens. The state's universities also took an additional 750 million-dollar hit.
California has long been seen as a kind of hothouse for new trends that end up defining America's economic and political future. But the current budget crisis clearly outstrips those being experienced in other states in the United States.
But analysts said in the midst of the economic recession, and the demand for services grows from an increasing pool of the newly impoverished or unemployed, California's current fiscal crisis mirrors the state of fiscal turmoil now being experienced in legislatures across the country.
"It's a deteriorating situation for states. It's bad and getting worse," said Arturo Perez, a fiscal analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) based in Denver.
In a recent report, the NCSL estimated that states in the United States would have to close what it described as a "jaw-dropping gap" of at least 121.2 billion dollars for fiscal year 2010, which for most states begins on July 1.
Source:Xinhua
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