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Dawn Green gets a hug from her daughter, 10-year-old Destiny Harp. They will lose their child care subsidy in a few weeks due to budget cuts. CHRISTOPHER CHUNG/PD
By MARTIN ESPINOZA
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Dawn Green, a mother of triplets, has been doing everything in her power — and then some — to stay off welfare.
In the past three years, the 39-year-old Guerneville mom has held down as many as three jobs at once while she struggled through a marriage separation and the loss of her home in the local housing bust.
Green is a buyer and trainer for a local grocery store. As a reward for staying off welfare for at least two years, she gets subsidized child care for her 10-year-olds Elijah, Destiny and Trinity through the state’s welfare-to-work program.
But that subsidy will end Nov. 1, the result of a line-item veto late last week by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that cuts $256 million from CalWORKS “Stage 3” child care funding. The cut was part of almost $1 billion in cuts the governor made through line-item budget vetoes.
“I’ll lose my child care,” said Green, breaking into tears. “In all honesty, I knew that we were going to get some cuts, but I never thought that Schwarzenegger was going to eliminate the whole program.”
In Sonoma County, the cut represents a loss of about $2.5 million to local child care providers who tend to 575 children from 319 families, according to Carol Simmons, coordinator of the county’s Child Care Planning Council. The subsidy helps parents who are no longer on welfare pay for child care until their kids turn 12 or until they make too much money. The cutoff point is 75 percent of the state median wage.
Last week’s announcement left Green and hundreds of others scrambling for child care. Green, whose job pays $1,800 a month after taxes, pays $1,100 a month in rent. She gets $325 a month in food stamps.
She said she would need an additional $1,800 a month for the weekly after-school care her children currently get at the Forestville Academy.
Jo Weber, director of the county Human Services Department, said a parent with two kids — one in school and one needing full-time care — can expect to pay about $1,000 a month in child care. Many parents making the transition off welfare won’t be able to afford that, she said.
Those who are not “timed out” of the welfare program could end up back on it, which means they would receive a cash grant, food stamps, Medi-Cal insurance and child care assistance.
“It’s shifting from a relatively reasonable cost for keeping people employed to one where the state pays for people to remain on public assistance,” Weber said.
In Lake and Mendocino counties, 267 children will lose child care eligibility at the end of the month, said Wes Winter, executive director of North Coast Opportunities, the organization that handles alternative payment in those areas.
About 149 kids in Lake County and 118 in Mendocino County will be affected, he said. For North Coast Opportunities, it represents a loss of $852,000, of which 81 percent goes to 187 child care providers, he said.
“What we’ve been hearing from most of these parents is panic,” he said. “They just don’t know what they’re going to do, this came so suddenly.”
Many state legislators blasted the governor this week for making line-item cuts to child care. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, announced Wednesday that he will try to reverse the cuts when the next legislative session begins in December.
H.D. Palmer, the governor’s spokesman on budget matters, said Schwarzenegger was compelled to use line-item vetoes when the budget came to him with $375 million set aside as a special reserve for economic uncertainty. With almost $1 billion in cuts, he brought the reserve to $1.3 billion.
Palmer said there’s no question that cuts to Stage 3 child care “will pose significant challenges for many.” He said those who lose benefits can still compete for some 310,000 child care slots that are funded with about $1.7 billion.
Simmons rejected that claim, saying thousands of children are on a waiting list for the slots.
“Those slots are all full,” she said. “Every single county has thousands of children on an eligibility waiting list.” Sonoma County has 9,000 kids who are eligible for subsidized child care. Roughly 3,000 to 4,000 children are on the county’s waiting lists.
The loss of Stage 3 funding could financially destabilize nonprofits such as the Community Child Care Council of Sonoma County, or 4Cs. It handles Stage 3 child care subsidies for 260 children and could lose $1.2 million of its annual $11 million budget, said Mira Wonderwheel, 4Cs community relations director.
“This is going to greatly impact our agency’s budget and the amount of services we provide to families and children,” Wonderwheel said.
She said the council is considering staff reductions, furlough days, unpaid days and an overall pay cut for office staff.
Green, the Guerneville mother of triplets, said she doesn’t want to go back on welfare unless she absolutely has to. She feels there are others who may need it more than she does.
“I’m cutting my hours down, so I’ll be making even less money because I have no choice,” she said. “It’s that or go back on welfare. I could do that, but that’s for emergency purposes only.
“Morally, I feel that it’s not right. We were doing what we were supposed to be doing.”
The governor’s line-item budget vetoes included a $256 million cut that kills CalWORKS Stage 3 child care funding. Sonoma County is expected to lose about $2.5 million in funding for 575 children; Lake and Mendocino counties will lose $852,000 for 267 kids.
Other line-item veto cuts statewide include:
– $52.1 million from state Office of AIDS, keeping funding at last year’s level.
– $7.6 million in AIDS Drug Assistance Program.
– $22 million from county costs for administering Medi-Cal eligibility.
– $18 million from drug and alcohol treatment programs.
Budget cuts from last week, prior to line-item vetoes:
– $300 million in cuts to in-home support services, a 3.6 percent reduction in hours.
– $7 million cut to state parks.
– $44 million for county administration costs for Medi-Cal.
– $25 million from regional center programs that support developmentally disabled people in the community.
– $1.7 billion in payments to K-12 school districts deferred until the next fiscal year.
– $700 million from K-12 designated education funding, such as instructional materials, special education and facilities.
– $550 million from class-size reduction.
– $129 million in payments to community colleges.
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Wow, I was listening to a Minister preach one morning and he stated “In order to have Compassion, one must have feeling towards anothers Misfortune… And i sit and i listen to all of the negative comments being left by all the people on this site and i must say “look at the way we are living” No one cares! Yes i agreee that people should only have children when they can AFFORD to take care of them,but what happens when people fall on hard times? what then? what about all the Degreed people who cant find a job and pay for childcare or spouses a cant work either? Then when you say “My tax dollars shouldnt be going to support the needey”? Yes if the world was perfect and everyone worked and made loads of cash, then of course there wouldnt be a need for these programs! but what will you say when these programs are GONE and the workers are then laid off and may have to rely on welfare? Some of these working class people work for some of these programs that are cut so what will happen to there daycare? Has anyone thought about that? No since your not in this situation you could careless,what if the cutts effected your sister,cousin, brother,uncle,neice? Are you then going to quit your job to provide free childcare for over 8 hrs per day? what happened to HELPING those who are in NEED? People I’m not saying our tax dollars should always be spent on helping receipents,but what happens when you fall on hard times? who will you run to? you only know where you’ve been, no one know’s where they’re going…
I was on welfare back when it was AFDC for about 9 months – I went to SRJC and I got subsidized child care for my daughter at the JC Children’s Center. I worked and went to school until my daughter was 5 and I was lucky to have free child care at both SRJC and SSU. When I graduated, I was in between jobs and then came up on a waiting list for subsidized child care at River to Coast Children’s Services. I got a job and within 2 years made enough money to no longer need financial assistance. It took me a good 7 years to make the transition from welfare to work. In today’s economy, I just don’t think it is realistic to expect someone to do it in 2 years! I hope the legislature finds a way to re-instate Stage 3 child care funding!
I’m sorry, but so far, I find all of these responses offensive (I’m female, by the way). If you can’t afford to raise your children, why are you having them? Stand up and take some responsibility for your own lives and decisions.
There’s a reference to “men shirking their responsibilities”… Yes, that may be true, but sister, YOU’RE the one who will be left with the baby, so you’d better make sure before you participate in the creation of one, that you can raise it on your own if need be.
Why should my tax dollars go to helping you raise your child? I deliberately chose to NOT have children, I don’t think I should have to pay for the rearing of someone else’s. I don’t think I’m personally getting enough of a return on my tax dollars spent.
It’s time for people to grow up and act like responsible adults when it comes to having children. Think before you act.
I work for an aftercare program that just found out several of its children will no longer have access to its services.
These children need us more than any other. These are parents who work, and work hard, and often need significant childcare while they do it.
The state is being short-sighted; at least 900 children in Sonoma County will be losing care in less than a month. What will their parents do? They have been off welfare for at least two years, and they are working full-time.
Taking away this childcare makes absolutely no sense. This state is making a grievous mistake if it thinks cutting childcare for low-income working families is going to save it any money at all.
well the consequence of this is more families will be forced to file for welfare. if you can’t work, what else can you do? these women are trying to work, and now they are unable. daycare costs are insanely high-mine was $1700 a month! that’s more than rent! single moms are more than often getting by without child support or getting a teeny tiny check a month SOMETIMES. when men are shirking their responsibilities and women are taking on both their responsibilities and the men’s they need help. cutting this assistance HURTS our economy. less taxes earned, more drain on government aid. it’s so upsetting, and just think about the people that voted to cut this…and how much they make $-sickening
This is ridiculous! All of the budget cuts pertain to children, health, and learning. If that is not the most important things in life, then I don’t know what is? Ive always told people from other states how CA takes care of Pregnant Women, Children and Child Care. Apparently I’m a foll. I am a single mother with a full time job. My sons daycare cost more than I make in a month, and is currently paid for by the states child care funding, which just got cut. I don’t know how we are going to survive if he can not go to daycare. My sons health is my number one priority, and his education is the next important thing. I am both shocked and saddened at the way these “budget cuts” have been handled. It is very heartless, un-sympathetic, and flat out STUPID! Do they not see that the money was taken from the very programs that we need the most! Can we please start looking at people as human beings and not a dollar sign!!!! These are lives, we are talking a bought. This is our future, and we need to do something smart a bought it before CA falls apart even worse than it already has.