When disaster strikes, Californians act at once to help. California’s experienced disaster response teams mobilize at a moment’s notice to fight fires in neighboring states and even in Mexico. Our specialized search-and-rescue teams raced to New Orleans in response to Hurricane Katrina and are right now feverishly searching through the rubble to rescue earthquake victims in Haiti.
Californians answer the call to duty in record numbers. In fact, one in eight of our brave men and women currently serving in our nation’s military call California home.
But right here at home, California is faced with a financial disaster that can’t be fought with fire hoses or axes. To stanch a financial drain of disastrous proportions, we must mobilize our elected representatives in Congress to demand and obtain fairness by reforming the way present federal law unfairly collects and spends the dollars of California taxpayers.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a delegation of top state officials went to Washington, D.C., last week to deliver a stark and urgent message: Our residents can no longer afford to have California tax dollars used to subsidize other states and cover federal responsibilities. We need relief from a financial nightmare that Congress alone holds the power to remedy.
California has been a victim of unfair federal funding formulas since before I was governor. These funding formulas are breaking our budget and forcing state and local governments to cut services to Californians sorely in need of them.
Our California leaders did not go to Washington asking for a bailout; they went to implore Congress and the administration to work with California’s representatives to enact long-term reforms that will change the way the most populous state and the federal government work together – reforms that will more equitably redefine our respective obligations so that our state budget reflects state needs and priorities rather than increasing federally mandated obligations.
It is time for our partners in the federal government to allow California to regain control of its finances and to make our state leaders responsible for deciding how to spend and how much of our state taxes to spend for a particular need, rather than spending what the feds mandate.
California should not be forced by federal courts or outdated medical coverage requirements to spend money our state doesn’t have. When I was chief executive this was manifestly unjust, but in today’s economy the burden of the state’s share of Medi-Cal is causing serious deterioration of important services Californians need and rely on.
California urgently needs to reduce its Medi-Cal costs to ensure that the most vulnerable continue to have access to the program. Currently, federal laws enforced by federal court rulings prevent the program from living within its means.
Congress pays California a lower rate for its share of the federal Medicaid program than it pays most other states. The federal government covers half the cost in California, while it pays 75 percent in Mississippi, 65 percent in Arizona and 71 percent in New Mexico, Utah and Arkansas. In fact, 38 states receive a higher reimbursement rate for Medicaid than California does. That means California taxpayers are spending $1.8 billion each year to subsidize the Medicaid program in 38 states. If Congress treated states equally, those California tax dollars could be spent here at home to balance our budget instead of subsidizing other states’ health care programs while we’re cutting our own.
Another issue that unfairly burdens Californians is the cost of federally mandated programs for illegal immigrants. An outrageous example is state incarceration of illegal immigrants in our prisons and jails. The federal government is solely responsible for controlling immigration and for securing our borders. Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants are crowding California prisons, costing California taxpayers nearly $1 billion every year.
It’s past time for Congress and the administration to accept what is clearly federal responsibility for these costs. California’s taxpayers can no longer sustain the cost, and it is flatly wrong that they have been compelled to do so.
California taxpayers should strongly support Schwarzenegger’s call for fiscal fairness.
Before the problem grows still worse, our congressional delegation must work with Schwarzenegger and other state leaders to reform the flawed federal policies that have produced such oppressive treatment for California’s taxpayers.
Historically, while other states have enjoyed unified support of their Congressional delegations to work for a common good benefiting all their constituents, California has not.
It is time that changed. Call or write your member of Congress and your senators and tell them so.
Congress created the problem. Tell them it is their responsibility to fix it, and to do so in this election year.Pete Wilson served as the 36th governor of California from 1991 to 1999.