County alerts families that assistance checks may stop in March

Over 35,000 San Diego County families received  a letter this week from the county’s Department of Health and Human Services informing them that if the state doesn’t pass a budget right quick, they might not be getting their assistance checks starting in March. The letter from the county said that because the state had stopped sending money for certain programs as of February 1, the county would either have to reduce or stop sending out checks for families in the Aid to Adoptive Parents, CalWORKs, and  Foster Care programs.

“We know this will have a significant impact to on your ability to pay your family’s bills,” the letter said. “The impact on our community will be great if state officials and lawmakers fail to release these funds.”

The letter also asks recipients to pressure Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Controller John Chiang, and the 12 regional state legislators to pass a budget and thereby free up the money. In bold face and underlines, the letter  asks recipients to call elected officials and “Demand that they fix the problem and continue to send these funds to your family.” (emphasis from the original). The letter  lists the phone numbers for officials’  local and Sacramento offices.

The result has been an onslaught of calls to local legislators’ offices. Staff for State Senators Dennis Hollingsworth, Christine Kehoe and Denise Ducheny, and for Assemblymember Lori Saldana, all said they had been inundated by “hundreds of calls.”  Several staff members from these and the offices of other legislators told me  that their bosses are hopping mad about the letter (Staff members said they preferred the elected official to make on-the-record remarks).  They said the county should tap some of its  reserve to cover expenses until a budget is passed, something they predicted could happen as soon as this weekend. I’m waiting for comment from the legislators themselves.

San Diego County Spokesman Mike Workman said the Board of Supervisors could consider spending reserves, but that it’s waiting to see what the state will do.

“All options are on the table,” he said.

In addition to spending down reserves, the county could let payments halt, or wait to see if they can get a court remedy, he said. In last night’s State of the County speech (PDF), Supervisor Dianne Jacob announced that San Diego would join with 23 other counties in suing the state for it’s failure to meet its financial obligations. Unless a budget is passed, the suit would likely be filed tomorrow, which is the first day the state will have failed to make payments.

In the meantime, representatives from 12 California counties, including four of San Diego’s Supervisors (all but Roberts), met this morning in Sacramento to discuss how to pressure the legislature into passing a budget. One county staffer referred to this move as “saber rattling” on the part of the supervisors. Other counties, notably Los Angeles County, are considering withholding the property taxes they collect until the state passes a budget.

I’ll post comments from legislators and Supervisors as I get them.