Lanterman rights for disabled should trump budget cuts

1977 was a breakthrough year for California when Gov. Jerry
Brown, then in his first term, signed the Lanterman Developmental
Disabilities Act, named for Republican Assemblyman Frank B.
Lanterman of Los Angeles who during 28 years in office fought for
people with disabilities.
The Lanterman Act, considered one of the nation’s guiding
standards, ensures equal rights for Americans born with
disabilities. Lanterman enabled thousands of citizens to move from
lonely, isolated institutions into the community. It is no less
important to our country than civil rights, voting rights, gay
rights, women’s rights, any of the great human rights movements of
our times.
Last June, 34 years later, Brown, now in his third term, signed
a budget that threatens rights under Lanterman if the state can’t
raise enough taxes to pay its bills.
At Becoming Independent, where we provide education, job, living
support and other essential services for 1,300 men, women and
children in Sonoma, Solano and Napa counties under the Lanterman
Act, we can’t allow that to happen.
BI and other non-profits have issued dire warnings for several
years as state leaders cut and squeezed programs to pass budgets as
revenues decline.
For three years, we’ve shouldered the impact of 4.25 percent in
revenue cuts. Brown held the cuts at that level in the current
budget. But he created a mechanism to automatically cut more if
revenues fall short.
Those so-called “trigger cuts” begin Jan. 1 if on Dec. 15 the
tax collector says California is not producing enough revenues. So
far, it appears the state is going to fall short.
Revenues for BI programs are on that first list of trigger cuts.
How deep the cuts? We don’t know. But BI’s staff and Board of
Directors decided we can’t wait for the axe to fall. In recent
months we reviewed our programs and revenues, the number of people
and families we serve, the North Bay employers who hire BI workers,
and the economic impact of our BI staff of 350 people.
Our conclusion: This is an issue of basic rights afforded to
Californians with disabilities. It’s the law. Our challenge is to
figure out how to raise the money to deliver Lanterman’s promise
that “California accepts a responsibility for persons with
developmental disabilities and an obligation to them which it must
discharge.”
Our plan is similar to efforts seen before in Sonoma County when
the community raised funds to protect school programs threatened by
budget cuts.
How much do we need? Factoring in state revenues (86 percent of
our budget), federal education funds, and contracts with employers
who hire our workers, our worst-case projected shortfall is about
$1.9 million. Call it a cool million.
We launched our 2COOL2FAIL campaign in October and created ways
to enable everyone to participate – fundraisers, grants and
philanthropy, in-kind donations, corporate support. You name it,
we’ll be trying it.
The stakes are spelled out in Lanterman. They’re so basic one
wonders why such things were even an issue in 1977. But they
represent everything it means to be an American. Rights to live in
the community with dignity, privacy and humane care. To go to
school, enjoy religious freedom, obtain prompt medical care, be
free from unnecessary restraint, isolation, excessive medication,
abuse or neglect and free from hazardous procedures like electrical
shock treatment, and finally, rights for people “to make choices in
their own lives.”
Lanterman also provided for the creation of non-profit agencies
like BI that are charged with making these rights real. That’s what
we do.
As we all deal with the impact of budget cuts on important
programs and issues – schools, poverty, hunger – it’s imperative
that people with disabilities be on the priority list.
Cami Weaver is CEO of Becoming Independent,
www.becomingindependent.org. BI has locations in the cities of
Sonoma, Santa Rosa, Healdsburg and Napa.