Porterville's disabled services risk state budget cutbacks

Directors at the Porterville Sheltered Workshop are playing the waiting game.

Providing services to hundreds of disabled people, the Sheltered Workshop faces a potential blow to its revenues, because its $11 million allowance has a formidable attachment to the state’s budget.

The directors are at the mercy of legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who are grappling with a $26.3 million deficit. As a result of the budget crisis, the state’s Department of Developmental Services is being forced to reduce its 2009-2010 general fund budget by $100 million.

“This is the most tenuous financial horizon we’ve seen,” Gordon Osmus, director of program services for the Porterville Sheltered Workshop, said.

The workshop is one of 21 regional centers across California that contract with the state to provide everything from job training to physical therapy to specialized education for developmentally disabled people. In 2008-2009, the Porterville Sheltered Workshop received about $7 million from the state.

The workshop has helped David Myers, a Porterville resident, find jobs. Staff seek out employers, and help clients like Myers fill out applications.

Before his current job working at a ranch in Springville, he worked at a rest stop between Tipton and Visalia.
Having a job means an income, paying bills and staying alive, according to Myers.

“[The changes] could cut me off, they would do a lot of damage,” he said. “It’s not fair. It’s not right.”

The state already cut funding to its regional centers by 3 percent in February and by 10 percent to all work programs in October.

“It’s a disaster,” Liz Fuller, whose son uses the Sheltered Workshop, said. “Find something else to cut.”

The Department of Developmental Services generated a list of 15 proposals that would trim costs. The proposals were created based on recommendations derived from public forums, work group meetings with stakeholder group representatives, and thousands of letters it received.

Based on the proposals, the Porterville Sheltered Workshop is crunching numbers and alerting the public about possible and potential upcoming changes.

Some of the proposals include denying transportation services to clients, imposing special holidays for people with disabilities, and forcing clients into programs they do not want or need.

If transportation services were denied, people like Fuller’s son would use public transportation. Each Sheltered Workshop bus, which brings people to and from programs, has one aid to help its riders.

Having about 400 to 500 additional people using public transit every day during peak hours could overload the public system, according to Osmus.

It's a situation he and his fellow staff members want to avoid.

On July 7, they distributed a memo to parents and residential service providers to alert them of the state’s budget issues.

“It makes me sick to my stomach,” Fuller said.

The Porterville Sheltered Workshop’s administrators have held on off on passing the 2009-2010 budget until the state passes its own budget. If the worst case scenario happens, they plan to use more public services, meticulously review their budget and forgo buying any huge items, like equipment.

“We do have grants pending,” Osmus said.

-- Contact Jenna Chandler at 784-5000, Ext. 1045, or jchandler@portervillerecorder.com.