The prolonged budget crisis in Sacramento, in which the state
Legislature can’t get agree on how to cut $15 billion out of its
spending deal, is for many an abstract concept.
The prolonged budget crisis in Sacramento, in which the state Legislature can’t get agree on how to cut $15 billion out of its spending deal, is for many an abstract concept.
While it may seem like an irritating, partisan fight, it’s not particularly relevant or urgent to everyday life. The lights and roads still work. Schools are still open. The prisons are still locked up tight.
But for many Angelenos, the budget impasse is both relevant and urgent to their daily lives. For people relying on the state paying its bills on time – business owners, students and some health care providers across the state – two months is a long time to wait to get paid. …
Among the unpaid is Antonia Rivas, director of Antonia Rivas Licensed Family Child Care in Reseda.
Rivas said the state owes her at least $17,000 since July 1. If she doesn’t get it soon, she faces closing her business, which would leave a dozen low-income families without child care, or selling her home to pump money into the business.
Rivas isn’t alone.
Melissa Alvarado, a 27-year-old single mother who attends Pierce College, hasn’t received her first Cal Grant check. The Van Nuys resident, who wants to be a teacher, nurse or businesswoman, is now considering dropping out of school because of skyrocketing costs. Enough is enough.
California legislators are 71 days late in passing a balanced budget. Their partisan bickering is starting to have serious, and possibly long-term effects on California and Californians. Republican and Democrat lawmakers and the governor must stop issuing press releases blaming each other and come up with a compromise to this mess – as hard and as unpopular as that may be.
This editorial first appeared in the LA Daily News.
