Sign the f**** budget already, California

Yes, this is one those situations that deserves the strong language.

SF Chronicle has some good articles about this crisis, including this one http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/08/03/MNK3RC8D82.DTL.

It's very serious. No payments are being sent to Medi-Cal providers who, in the face of having to close, are doing heroic things like personally trying to get loans or taking out second mortgages to keep their agencies alive. So that people don't DIE when they can't get to their dialysis or Alzheimer's clinic. I hope the Chronicle posts everyday the number of elderly and disabled people who pass away if this budget stalemate continues.

From the SF Chronicle:

Medi-Cal was supposed to make a large payment today - $189 million to managed care and dental plans - and another payment of $213.5 million to institutional providers on Thursday, said H.D. Palmer of the state Department of Finance. Those payments, in the absence of a budget, cannot be made, he said.

Child care providers that rely on state funds to care for low-income children also are sounding the alarm that programs could be forced to close if the budget impasse isn't resolved soon.

The state is $300 million behind in payments that should have been made on July 15. Child care centers use those funds to pay their first-quarter salaries, rent and other expenses. The delay is forcing many programs to take out loans, and when a budget is finally passed, they won't be able to use their state funds to repay the interest.

This also affects community colleges, and employees getting paid.

"The people who work in this field are not well paid. What little they do get, they need," said Corinne Mohrmann, executive director of St. Vincent's Day Home in Oakland.

Will there be more bankrupticies and house foreclosures if the low-paid nonprofits employees don't get paid?

We need one more Republican vote to pass the proposed budget (only one Republican has voted yes so far) but they are being stubborn asses and the Governor appears unable or unwilling to exert power and make them pass it. Their argument is that they don't want to approve overspending. Here's the Republican Senate leader holding it up:

Dick Ackerman, R-Irvine, Senate Republican leader

Age: 64

Contact: (916) 651-4033, senator.ackerman@sen.ca.gov

I think I'll be giving him a call today...