Governor Schwarzenegger signed the state budget on Monday, July 11 and the news is gradually emerging about what’s in and what’s out. Here’s a brief summary of nutrition-related items as an FYI.

Bakersfield Online and the Monterey Herald are two papers that have reported that the budget includes the May Revise proposal for $18.2 million to add fruit and vegetables to the School Breakfast Program. This is great news for all of us who care about improving kids’ access to nutritious and affordable food! Action Alert readers will remember CFPA’s HealthierCalifornia proposal from the start of this legislative session, which included the call to add a piece of fruit to the School Breakfast Program. Recognizing the importance of getting healthy food into schools (as well as junk food out), the Administration showed strong interest in adding this idea to its package of obesity prevention policies right from the start.

The other exciting piece of nutrition news is that the ABAWD waiver issue has finally been resolved. After welfare reform, states had the option to apply for waivers to the federal requirement that single, able-bodied adults only receive food stamps for three out of any 12 months if their unemployment rate crossed a certain threshold. However, California didn’t take advantage of the waiver, losing millions of federal food stamp dollars. Now, DSS must apply on behalf of any eligible area (individual counties or the whole state), although counties can opt out if they notify DSS.

However, the budget includes disappointing news as well:

• Finger-imaging is still funded. As reported earlier, some Republican legislators had balked at the Budget Trailer Bill Language that would have eliminated finger-imaging and, since a two thirds vote was needed, the proposal died. The Democrats had no leverage to bring it back, so we’ll need to make this happen through AB 696!  

• The Governor vetoed funding for counties to help them transition from monthly to quarterly reporting. As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, he vetoed $23.7 million, including $13.7 million in federal funds, that would have paid for county-level food stamp administration. Counties are still required to complete the transition—but they no longer have these resources to support the switch. In his veto message, the Governor called upon the Department of Social Services to “work with counties to determine the true impact of quarterly reporting,” so that his January budget can reflect a consensus on how much this new system will cost.

•  As reported in a recent Action Alert, California will not provide a COLA for either CalWORKS or SSI/SSP recipients. In the “Big Five” agreement, the state also opted to withhold one quarter of the federal COLA which is supposed to pass through to SSI/SSP recipients. According to the Western Center for Law and Poverty, the cuts equal about $650 million over two years. The typical SSI recipient will lose $751 over two years and a CalWORKs family of three will lose $1,074 over two years. With less money on hand, these families risk having to skip food to meet other basic necessities.

CFPA will continue to provide you with updated budget information, as well as action steps to make sure the good news stays good. Contact Legislative Director George Manalo-LeClair at george@cfpa.net if you have questions.