California finally has a budget 52 days late.
Here's one item that governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed.
This program for the mentally-ill homeless was saving tax dollars. Sometimes you have to spend money to save money.
From Speak Out California:
"The Governor blue-penciled, and thus completely
eliminated, an extremely important and successful program to
house the mentally ill.
"This program had been lauded by mental health experts as helping
break the cycle of homelessness that included hospitalization,
jails and life on the streets. Among the many ironies in
abolishing a program that actually saves the state millions of
dollars beyond its cost, this was the same measure the Gov. went
out of his way to praise only three years ago.
"Clearly, the ultra-conservatives who dominate the Republican
Party today think it's great to serve their wealthy masters at
our expense, so let's put a face on who will now suffer. One
Paul Culp, the LA Times reports, is a college graduate who
suffers from untreated bipolar disorder and was living on the
streets. Two years into this program, he was reunited with his
children and is now supporting himself. Now the program is gone.
Where will Paul Culp end up? And does anybody care---after all
we?ve saved more than enough to allow yacht owners to buy their
million dollar toys without having to pay the sales tax that you
and I must on our less indulgent purchases. Moral document
indeed.
"Check out the excellent LA Times piece on this shameful
Schwarzenegger veto at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mental25aug25,1,2351487,print.story?coll=la-headlines-california.
"And the Mercury News article as well at
http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_6717552?nclick_check=1.html"
From the weekly update on the goings-on in Sacramento for the week ending August 25, 2007.
Speak Out California is at www.speakoutca.org/weblog/
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