(Sacramento, CA) – Bill A. Lloyd, President of the Services Employees International Union (SEIU) California released the following statement after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released his FY 10-11 budget proposal today:

“After a long and painful recession, California’s middle-class needs a state budget that will stimulate the economy and help rebuild California.  The Governor’s budget proposal fails miserably on both counts, forcing massive layoffs and wage cuts, prolonging the recession, rolling back the promise of retirement security for middle-class families and putting vulnerable children and seniors in harm’s way.

“The Governor’s continued assault on home care would deprive over 400,000 seniors and people with disabilities of the care they need to live at home and would drive California’s unemployment rate over 14 percent.

“Just two days after the Governor promised to make children his top priority, his budget targets the state’s poorest children with deep cuts to their healthcare and their basic survival.

“Instead of investing in our future, the Governor offers further deep cuts to education.

“We’re ready to work with Governor Schwarzenegger and the legislature to secure federal dollars, but we won’t let the Governor use our seniors, our children, and our state’s recovery as bargaining chips.

“But state revenue has to be part of the solution, and our inadequate tax system needs to be re-evaluated. It’s time for the corporations who have received sweetheart deals in every budget to pay their share, too. Working and middle class Californians have been shouldering the burden of our budget problems for far too long.”  

SEIU California is a coalition of over 700,000 janitors, social workers, security officers, home care workers, school and university employees, healthcare workers, and city, county and state employees represented by SEIU local unions throughout California. We come together to build a better California by fighting to pass policies and elect candidates that benefit working families and advance the issues we care about: affordable healthcare, good wages, retirement security for all, a healthy environment, good schools and universities, and stronger communities. We believe that by working together we can build a California where working families can thrive again.