- States’ budget pain eclipses last recession, By Stephen C. Fehr and Daniel C. Vock, July 21, 2009, Stateline.org: “The current recession — now 19 months long and still going — already has forced states to deal with greater budget shortfalls than they faced in the five years it took them to recover from the last national recession after the 2001 terrorist attacks. New figures from the National Conference of State Legislatures show that states scrambling to balance their budgets already have closed at least $268.6 billion in gaps between projected spending and revenues since the recession started in December 2007…”
- Safety net for poor, disabled in tatters after plan’s cuts, health care advocates say, By Ken Carlson, July 22, 2009, Modesto Bee: “As details of the state budget deal emerged this week, some health care advocates said the agreement cuts too deeply into safety net programs for the poor and disabled. According to one estimate, a $144 million budget cut to Healthy Families, the low-cost health insurance for the working poor, would result in denying coverage to almost 780,000 children in California…”
- California budget cuts deep into healthcare, schools, By Daniel B. Wood, July 21, 2009, Christian Science Monitor: “Deep cuts in government services including healthcare, prisons, and local government assistance are the likely results of the budget deal struck between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers after negotiations all day Monday. The California legislature will vote as early as Thursday on the deal to close the state’s $26.3 billion budget deficit…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty