Two programs that allow at-risk seniors to stay in their own homes and allow caregivers to get a needed break are among those that are near the breaking point in the absence of state payments.

With no cash flow, Linkages Care Management Services, which links those in need with services that will help them maintain independence and prevent institutionalization, has been forced to use lines of credit and reserve accounts, said CEO Helen Sampson.

“I don’t think the general public understands the impact of a budget delay like this one,” Sampson said, as the Legislature has gone 11 weeks into the new fiscal year without agreeing on a state budget. “When we have to get a line of credit, we end up using all of our fundraising dollars just to pay the interest on the loan.”

“That’s a really bad use of scarce resources,” she added.

Alice Reyes, the director of Wisdom Center (an adult day center that allows family caregivers some respite by dropping off their loved ones for the day), called the nearly three-month-late budget a “pervasive waste.”

Without payments from the state, organizations like Wisdom Center and Linkages lose trained and valuable staff, spend most of their money on making interest payments, and bring anxiety and fear to their clients, they said.

“We could do better for our folks, but we’re busy trying our hardest to survive,” Sampson said.

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Both Linkages and the Wisdom Center have been in Santa Maria since 1999 and are part of the same parent organization, Life Steps Foundation.

“Even when the budget is finally signed, that money doesn’t flow down to us for at least another month after,” Reyes added.

Staff and services at the Wisdom Center have already been scaled down in anticipation of at least a 10 percent cut in the adopted budget, but Reyes said “at this level we’re going to start hitting our for-profit community,” such as service vendors and landlords.

“People need to start waking up now, because this is so wrong,” Reyes said.

Both women echoed a statement by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger earlier in the month at a press conference.

“One thing we know for sure is the legislators are not suffering. Not a bit,” Schwarzenegger said Sept. 4. “They get their per diem (allowance, and) they get their salary.”

“We can’t afford to waste one penny given the amount of need in our state and the energy required to meet it,” Sampson said.

“Shame on them! They have a whole year to do their job,” she said of legislators and the budget process.

Sam Womack can be reached at 739-2218 or swomack@santamariatimes.com.

September 14, 2008