Health and human service advocates are asking California lawmakers to pass a budget without a reserve. Instead, they want the billion dollars Governor Jerry Brown is proposing to set aside in a rainy day fund to offset cuts to social services.
More than a dozen people stood under umbrellas inside the Capitol Thursday to symbolize that rain is already falling on California families.
Nan Brasmer, with California Alliance for Retired Americans, said lawmakers have cut more than 15 billion dollars to health and human services since 2008.
"A rainy day fund serves no purpose if you have to take the funds away from the programs that we need to protect from our safety net in order to have a rainy day fund that's just going to sit until the governor decides he needs to spend it somewhere," said Brasmer.
The Governor's Department of Finance said without a reserve, the state wouldn't have money for natural disasters, economic downturns, or court injunctions.
