State Budget for the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities System

AbiltyPath thanks the California Legislature for passing long overdue funding to help shore up the the state's intellectual and developmental disabilities system ("I/DD System").?

A study commissioned by the California Legislature commissioned in 2018 highlighted the grim fact that California has chronically underfunding the I/DD System by more than $1.4 billion annually!

?While the latest state budget provides a desperately needed increase in funding, the details of the budget reveal more funding is required for service providers to adequately meet the needs of the 330,000 fellow Californians they serve.

The recently passed budget defers funding for nearly 10 months, delaying any increases until April of 2022.??In addition, the budget increases are phased in over a five-year period, with nearly 50% of the funding increase not taking effect until 2025. In the meantime, service providers are contending with staffing shortages, incremental COVID-19 related costs, rising rents and more. Adding to the staffing challenges, the state’s budgets regularly neglect to fund legislated annual minimum wage increases, which have increased in California by roughly 90% since the Great Recession; there has been no attempt to fund the increased staffing costs within the I/DD System budgets. Again, the current budget proposal makes no attempt to help service providers fund these important and necessary minimum wage increases, making it another unfunded mandate.

While we have come a long way since the ADA was signed into law 31 years ago, there is still significant work to do.? Our fellow Californian's and the staff that serve this amazing community, deserve better. We will continue to advocate on behalf of our staff and the children, adults, and families we serve, ensuring their needs are addressed. You can join us and support our efforts by signing up for action alerts at www.abilitypath.org/advocate.