SACRAMENTO – Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today vetoed $12 million from Adult Protective Services (APS), a state-mandated program operated
by all 58 counties to protect elder and dependent adults who have been physically or mentally abused, financially abused, and/or neglected.
The $12 million was included in the budget passed this week by the Legislature, and would have the first funding increase since 2000 for these vital
services. Assemblywoman Patty Berg, D-Eureka, who chairs the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, expressed her shock
at the cut.
“What a dreadful decision this is,” said Berg. “The only people who could be happy with this cut are the criminals who prey on the elderly.”
APS is the first line of defense against elder and dependent adult abuse and neglect. Instances of abuse and neglect are increasing dramatically,
and the problem is only expected to get worse as the population ages. Reports of abuse and neglect have increased by a third over the past five years,
and studies suggest that for every report made, at least five and as many as 15 instances of abuse go unreported. Projections show that
California’s
elder population will nearly double within the next 20 years, including a significant increase in the number of those living with Alzheimer’s and other
“Continued underfunding of APS, the only program designed to safeguard those seniors living in their own homes from those who would abuse them,
will only worsen a serious and growing problem that has profound impacts on victims, their families, and society,” said Jackie Wynne McGrath, State Public
Policy Director for the Alzheimer's Association. “Each year we continue to underfund APS, we put our most frail and vulnerable adults at greater and greater
risk.”
More than 150 aging services organizations, state and local government officials, and law enforcement officials throughout the state wrote letters supporting
the $12 million in new funds for APS. In addition to the organizations that supported the increased funding, more than 120 individuals also expressed support
for this needed augmentation over the past several months.
“This unprecedented and diverse coalition understood the vital role that APS plays in the protection of seniors and the prosecution of criminals,” said Frank
Mecca, Executive Director of the County Welfare Directors Association of California (CWDA). “This cut will clearly cost the state far more in hospitalization,
law enforcement, and public assistance. It just doesn’t make sense on moral grounds, policy grounds or economic grounds.”
CWDA is a non-profit association representing the human service directors from each of
California's 58 counties. The Association's mission is to promote
a human services system that encourages self-sufficiency of families and communities and protects vulnerable children and adults from abuse and neglect.
