By Jaxan Christensen
I work for a non-profit agency that serves seniors and the disabled in Lake and Mendocino Counties. We recently learned one of our programs is receiving a 25 percent cut in funding. Staff in that program, already working part-time, will have their hours reduced even more. Eighteen to 20 of our clients will be terminated from the program in August. They will no longer have the nurses and care managers who call and check on them, their lifeline units will go away. For their own safety, most of these people will have to leave their homes and move into skilled nursing facilities. This, however, will cost the state more than the cost of funding these programs.
The legislators who have authorized these cuts are clueless; their inadequacy must be addressed. Remember, our legislators are not looking at furlough days, reduction in their hours, their pay or reduction in their staff. Their health benefits and pensions, which are separate from ours, are not in jeopardy. Until they begin to feel the pain, it will continue to be business as usual. When will they listen? Where does it stop? How mad do we need to get?
This is not a Republican vs. Democrat issue; it is a legislator vs. U.S. taxpayer issue. Again, I say, clean the slate.
Jaxan Christensen
Upper Lake
