What not to do when your economy is tanking

On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the nation lost 49,000 jobs in May, while unemployment jumped to 5.5%: the biggest one-month jobless increase in 22 years. The U.S. economy has now lost a total of 324,000 jobs since this past December, and 8.5 million Americans are out of work.

Between the housing market meltdown, rising prices, and falling consumer spending, the state of California has been one of the hardest hit by the nation's economic woes. Millions of Californians are struggling to afford gas and food, make the mortgage payment, and generally keep their heads above water.

So how is our Governor proposing to respond to an economy in crisis? (Continued...)

By cutting back on work supports, making it harder to get health care, pushing big cuts for schools, and dropping services for elderly and the disabled.

Here's an analysis from the California Budget Project showing how many Californians would be impacted by a few of the Governor's May Revise budget proposals. I've also pulled out the impacts just on Santa Clara County. K-12 isn't included; statewide, the cuts there would total $665 per student for 2008-09.



If the raw numbers aren't convincing, check out Patty Fisher's column in the Merc last week for the story of one working mom's struggle to navigate the system.

Not only are these proposals a recipe for short-term disaster -- cutting off work and family supports just when we need them the most -- but by hacking away at education and aid for children, short-sighted reductions like these threaten our state's future economic competitiveness. And as the New York Times points out, looming cutbacks in state and local government spending will deal another major blow to the national economy, possibly even prolonging the recession into 2009. Let's hope Schwarzenegger wises up.

Maybe Arnold is taking a page from George Bush's playbook: in an equally baffling move in the middle of a recession, Bush is threatening to veto an extension of federal jobless benefits for the 1.6 million people who have been looking for work for more than 6 months and are about to exhaust their state unemployment benefits.

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3 out of 10 elders face inadequate incomes in Santa Clara County

In high-priced Silicon Valley, families of all types and ages find it hard to make ends meet. But older adults face particular challenges.

A new standard developed by UCLA indicates that the basic costs of living for elders (age 65+) in Santa Clara County range from $17,632 for a single senior homeowner with no mortgage, up to $47,354 for a couple with a mortgage -- and at least 31% of elder households in the county do not have enough income to meet these minimum standards of living.

The Elder Economic Security Standard Index, released today by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the California Elder Economic Security Initiative, measures the costs for older adults of meeting their basic needs for housing, food, transportation and other necessities.

Here are the annual costs of basic needs for older adults living in Santa Clara County:

Elder Standard Per Year

Elder Person:
Owner w/o mortgage: $17,632

Owner w/ mortgage: $37,641

Renter, one bedroom: $25,391

Elder Couple:
Owner w/o mortgage: $27,345
Owner w/ mortgage: $47,354
Renter, one bedroom: $35,104

Source: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Standard per year is based on basic monthly costs for housing, food, transportation, health care (assuming good health), and miscellaneous needs.

(Continued...) As of 2006, at least 31% of households including elders had incomes below these standards, meaning that they face serious challenges in affording the basic necessities of life.

This points at the urgent need in Silicon Valley for initiatives to tackle the high cost of living, including affordable housing for families of all types and income levels; affordable and accessible health care providers; public transit that meets the needs not only of commuters, but also of retirees and transit-dependent residents; and planning future development so that grocery stores, pharmacies, clinics, hospitals, parks, community centers, and other amenities are nearby and accessible by walking or transit for all neighborhoods. We've made progress on many of these fronts, but with more than three out of ten elder households still struggling to make ends meet, it's clear we need to do more.


Source: Elder Standard Index from UCLA/WOW. Housing and population data from the American Community Survey was used to approximate the number of Santa Clara County households containing seniors which fall below the income levels provided in the Elder Standard Index. Because the Index does not provide standards for elders living in larger households, the standard for an elder couple was also used for elders in households of three or more, resulting in a conservative estimate of elders living below the standard.

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