Keep the Promise Made to State’s Most Vulnerable

With the latest state budget projections from the Legislative Analyst’s Office in Sacramento forecasting multibillion-dollar deficits, California’s leaders face the daunting task of resolving funding priorities in the next year’s budget at the same time they work to keep the state solvent during the current fiscal year.

This will require bold action, and we will gain insight on how our freshly elected leaders will respond to these ongoing challenges when the Legislature convenes tomorrow for a special session called by Gov. Gray Davis, who will deliver proposals for $10 billion in immediate budget reductions.

The governor and the Legislature should take this opportunity to match boldness with wisdom and principle. They should stand firm on California’s promise to its most vulnerable citizens -- those with developmental disabilities -- by taking funding for their life-critical services off the budget negotiation table.

Why shield these programs from the budget pain? There are no celebrities or wealthy patrons from either party championing these citizens -- only people with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, autism and other developmental disabilities who are trusting Californians to honor the commitment that enables them to live safely and with dignity in our communities.

Inspiration can be found in the origins of that promise. Thirty years ago, visionary Democrats and Republicans conducted a bipartisan overhaul of what had been a shameful and costly system of warehousing people with developmental disabilities in remote institutions. By passing the landmark Lanterman Act, they created a state-funded, privately operated system of community care that enabled children with developmental disabilities to receive the critical services they need, while living at home with the love and support of family.

In addition to enabling parents of children with even the severest disabilities to keep their families whole, the Lanterman Act’s community care system provided a similarly cost-effective means for adults with developmental disabilities to receive essential services and supports they need to thrive in mainstream society. Even in the face of chronic underfunding, this system of 21 regional centers has proved to be an excellent value for the state’s taxpayers.

Together, the regional centers deliver effective, cost-efficient services to the more than 170,000 Californians with developmental disabilities who, in an earlier time, would largely have been institutionalized. At the Regional Center of Orange County, we accomplish this by operating under a set of guiding principles.

These principles direct us to implement the Lanterman Act in ways that are responsive to the needs of the people we serve through careful stewardship, which we define as “thoughtful, responsible action.” This culture of stewardship, involving all sectors of the community, has led to countless reforms of procedure, process and method that ensure we squeeze maximum value out of each tax dollar entrusted to us, while continually improving the quality of services available to people with disabilities.

Thus, when, earlier this fiscal year, the state mandated a $52-million cut to the regional center system budget -- $3.2 million of it to come from Orange County -- we knew there was precious little “extra” to be found, especially in light of the autism epidemic facing Orange County and the state as a whole.

As our leaders review options for resolving our budget crisis, it is important for them to recognize that it is only through the combined efforts of thousands of caring individuals -- many of whom work at minimum wage -- that the community care system has managed to continue operating to this point.

There is ample evidence that people with disabilities and those who serve them in Orange County have an enduring commitment to wise stewardship of tax dollars.

Equally evident is that further cuts would seriously erode the vital and fragile system that thousands of families depend on for the necessities of life. The outcome of the December Special Session and the coming fiscal year’s budget actions could very well be turning points in California’s commitment to its most vulnerable citizens. We look to these proceedings with hope that they will bring an affirmation from our elected leaders that people with developmental disabilities still have a place in California’s communities.