Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed to eliminate the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) Program, which provides cash assistance for eligible low-income families with children, while helping parents find jobs and overcome barriers to employment. Approximately four out of five CalWORKs recipients (78.5 percent) are children.
If CalWORKs were eliminated, more than 880 children and parents in Amador County would lose monthly cash grants, along with employment services and child care assistance, effective October 1, 2009. The county would lose $3,806,000 in federal and state funding in 2010-11.
The cuts are greater in Calaveras County where 1,490 children and parents would lose monthly cash grants, employment services and child care assistance. Calaveras County would lose $6,464,000 in federal and state funding in 2010-11.
Statewide approximately four out of five CalWORKs recipients (78.5 percent) are children. If CalWORKs were eliminated, more than 1.1 million children and approximately 310,000 parents across the state would be impacted. Eliminating CalWORKs would reduce General Fund spending by $2.4 billion in 2010-11 — the first full year that CalWORKs would be eliminated — but California also would lose $3.9 billion in federal funds, for a combined loss of state and federal funding of $6.3 billion.
See the breakdown for all counties in this report from the California Budget Project.
1 Comment
June 23, 2009 at 11:54 am
Are the residents of Amador County ready for a local government that is only available 4 days a week. We all understand that cutbacks are inevitable in this time of economic crisis, but is this the way to go?