The Golden State Gets a Bit Tarnished

(Via SF Gate)

For 50 days, California has been in fiscal freeze.

With the Legislature at loggerheads over the state budget, the lives of hundreds of thousands of residents who rely on state funding have also been in limbo. Many of these people are readily overlooked - some are frail and disabled, thousands are elderly and poor. Some run nonprofits that are small but essential to the people they support. Others are business owners operating on the slimmest of margins.

With the Assembly returning from its summer recess Monday, legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are expected to begin negotiating once again to approve a budget.

Meanwhile, with each day's passing, anxiety is mounting for those who depend on a check from the state. Some have been buying time through personal loans and lines of credit. Others are negotiating with their schools and suppliers. Still others are planning an inauspicious shutdown. And some simply are worried about making ends meet.

I have a good friend, an elderly gentleman, who gets a California State disability check every quarter. It's not a lot (about $300.00 every quarter), but he depends on it to fill in the gaps that his Social Security doesn't pay for. He didn't get his check this month yet, and until this gets resolved he will be waiting. He's a wonderful, giving man, who spent most of his life in service to others, and he is the human face of this travesty.

It's interesting that in the midst of this, a crisis that effects millions of the most in need people in our communities, the legislators took their regularly scheduled recess. I guess using the people as pawns in a political game is stressful, eh? It's not even making much of a splash in the papers right now. Just business as usual for our politicians and media. But for people like my friend, it's pushing them closer and closer to the edge.