When Governor Schwarzenegger drew up his 2004-05 budget, he was counting on the voters to approve a $15 billion bond measure March 2. In addition, he called for cutting services, shifting funds from some accounts to others, borrowing more, and increasing some fees-but no new taxes. About one-fifth of the cuts would be to public schools and another one-fifth to health and human services.

Some Democrats in the legislature supported the bond measure, but they want to avoid some of the program cuts by increasing taxes on the highest incomes, cutting some corporate tax loopholes, and adopting other revenue measures.

As budget hearings begin at the Capitol, members of the Children's Advocates Roundtable are rallying their forces to oppose cuts in programs for children and families.

The governor's proposed budget includes cuts to:

Child care

• Reduce funds for all child care programs
• Eliminate "Stage 3" child care subsidies for parents who have left welfare. Families would be guaranteed just three years of subsidized care after cash aid ends. Families now in the program would receive an extra year.
• Require more families to pay fees for partly subsidized child care
• Lower the income "ceiling" for child care subsidies in lower-cost counties
• Eliminate child care for 13-year-olds and provide care for kids 11 and 12 only when before- and after-school programs are not available
• Lower payment to child care providers with less training, to create a "tiered" system of reimbursement
• Require child care providers and others licensed by the state to pay higher licensing fees
• Provide 1.8% cost of living increase for child care providers.

Info: California Child Care Resource and Referral Network, 415-882-0234; Labor Project for Working Families, 510-642-5498

Health

• Freeze enrollment in some health programs, including Healthy Families and Medi-Cal services for legal immigrants
• Reduce Medi-Cal provider rates by an additional 10 percent-although a federal court blocked an earlier 5 percent reduction
• Begin long-range plans to "redesign" Medi-Cal

Info: Health Access, 916-442-2308; 100% Campaign, 510-663-1294

CalWORKs

• Decrease cash grants by 5% starting April 2004-from $704 to $669 a month for a family of three in high-cost counties, from $671 to $637 in low-cost counties
• Take back cost-of-living increases passed last year and provide none this year
• Require CalWORKs participants to put in at least 20 hours a week at work or work-related activities, like job training, within two months of starting to receive welfare
• Reduce child-only cash grants by 25 percent for families that break CalWORKs rules or reach the five-year lifetime limit.

Info: California Partnership, 562-862-2070 ext. 304 or 415-572-1445

Social services

• Eliminate the new program of transitional food stamps program for former CalWORKs recipients
• Repeal last year's food stamp reforms, which allowed families receiving food stamps to own one working car and allowed counties to sign people up for food stamps without making them come into the office in person.
• Suspend state and federal cost of living increases for SSI/SSP grants
• Implement foster care reforms, to be detailed in the May Revise.

Info: California Food Policy Advocates, 415-777-4422; Roundtable Foster Care Committee, dback@SanDiego.edu

Schools

• Fund Prop 98 at $2 billion below full funding, increasing per-pupil spending by only $5 to $6,945
• Defer some spending until 2005-06 and shift property tax revenue from local governments to schools
• Reduce the number of special state-funded programs and give more of the state money to local districts' regular budgets
• Reduce the inequalities in the amount of state funds that go to local school districts
• Fully fund state deferred-maintenance program.

Info: California PTA, 213-620-1100

Sources: 100% Campaign, California Budget Project, Child Development Policy Institute, Latino Coalition for a Healthy California

On the agenda

With February 29 as the deadline for filing bills in the legislature, Children's Advocates Roundtable members have been choosing priorities for the year. Here are some highlights.

Hunger and nutrition goals include: Supporting an end to California's fingerprint requirement for all adults in households that receive food stamps. Supporting a requirement that all California's public school serve breakfast. Supporting proposals to end the lifetime ban on food stamps for some people with a past drug felony conviction. Opposing efforts to repeal last year's AB 231, which allows food stamp recipients to own one reliable car and allows counties to sign people up for food stamps without making them appear in person. Opposing moves to eliminate "transitional" food stamps for families leaving welfare.

Info: George Menalo-LeClair, California Food Policy Advocates, 415-777-4422, California Association of Food Banks, 916-321-4435

Foster care goals include: Supporting cooperation between the juvenile justice and child welfare systems to support kids. Supporting improvements to special education for foster kids. Funding programs that support teen parents in foster care. Supporting flexibility in allowing child welfare agencies to approve some relative caregivers as foster parents despite past criminal records.

Info: Children's Advocacy Institute, 916-444-3875

Environmental health goals include: Support for AB 1006 (Chu), which would ban the most toxic pesticides from California schools.

Info: Healthy School Campaign, 415-863-8934, ext.109

Early Care and Education goals include: Support for comprehensive planning for infant/toddler child care as part of the system of early childhood education.

Info: Child Care Law Center, 415-394-7144

More money for working families

Working families may be able to get thousands of dollars back in tax credits:

Up to $4204 from the federal Earned Income Tax Credit

You get this credit even if you don't owe any taxes. You may qualify if you are supporting at least one child and your income is under the limit, which varies by family size-for example, $33,692 for a single parent with two or more children.

Up to $2100 from the federal Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit

This is only a refund, so it can reduce your taxes but won't be paid to you in cash. You may qualify if you paid for care for a child or dependent family member so you could work or look for work.

Up to $1,000 per child from the federal Child Tax Credit

You may be able to get some or all this credit if you made at least $10,500 but less than $94,000 (single) or $129,000 (married couple) in 2003 and you are supporting a child who's under 17.

Up to $1,050 from the California Child and Dependent Care Expenses Credit

You may be able to get some or all of this credit even if you don't owe taxes. You may qualify if you make less than $100,000 (single or married couple) and you paid for care for a child under 15 so you could work or look for work.

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) programs provide IRS-trained and -certified volunteers to help you fill out your tax forms (see "My future is a little brighter").

To locate the nearest VITA center, call 800-852-5711 or visit http://www.ftb.ca.gov/individuals/vita/sites.aspl

For more info or outreach materials, contact

• National Women's Law Center, 202-588-5180; www.nwlc.org/details.cfm?id=1742§ion=tax
• California Child Care Resource and Referral Network, 415-882-0234; http://rrnetwork.org
• Earn it! Keep it! $ave it!, sponsored by the United Way of the Bay Area, 415-808-4300; www.uwba.org

Family support corner

As part of our year-long communications project for family resource centers, funded by the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. and S.H.Cowell foundations, our Roundtable pages will highlight Sacramento happenings of special interest to the family support field.

• California's current effort to transform the child welfare system presents tremendous new opportunities for family support, because it will shift resources to prevention, to support for families so kids don't have to be taken away, and to support for foster parents. Partnering with community organizations will be a key strategy and community-based agencies can help shape their counties' redesign plan. Eleven counties (Conta Costa, Glenn, Hum-boldt, Los Angeles, Placer, Sacra-mento, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Stanislaus, Tehama, and Trinity) are supposed to implement plans in five years, with eight more (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Del Norte, Plumas, Siskiyou, Tuolomne, and Yuba) implementing some features. Contact your county child welfare department and get involved!

• Prevent Child Abuse California has been supporting several bills to provide more support to children in homes with domestic violence and also rallying support for the federal Social Services Block Grant program. For info: 916-498-8481, www.pca-ca.org

• Californians for Family Economic Self-Sufficiency is supporting a bill to suspend CalWORKs time limits for parents enrolled in community college programs likely to lead to a job that pays enough to support a family. This group also has a listserv with a wealth of information on promoting family economic success. For info: email aimee@nedlc.org

• The California Primary Care Association sends legislative alerts of interest to safety-net health care providers. For info: 916-440-8170, www.cpca.org

Families as partners in child development programs

How (and why) child development programs can engage families as partners will be the subject of one-day train-the-trainers institutes sponsored by the California Department of Education Child Development Division.

• March 24, San Mateo County Office of Education
• March 26, Westfield Shopping Town North County, Escondido
• April 1, Community Connection for Child Care, Bakersfield
• April 2, Riverside County Office of Education
• April 7, San Joaquin County Office of Education

Info: Carmella Schaecher, American Institutes for Research,650-843-8132 or cschaecher@air.org