Editorials

Gov. Gray Davis warned today that if the state Assembly doesn't pass the 2002-2003 budget by Aug. 1, there will be a devastating effect on people living with HIV and AIDS. 

"Every day that the budget does not pass, these AIDS-based organizations lose $170,000 a day -- that's over $4 million,'' Davis said. 

Davis made a plea asking the Assembly to quickly pass the budget before the end of the month outside San Francisco General Hospital after touring the hospital's AIDS ward and visiting with patients there. 

The governor, who said he has made it a personal mission to lead California in the fight against AIDS, reports that since he's been in office the state has increased AIDS funding by 51 percent. 

"No state in America is doing more than California,'' he said. 

And although the Medi-Cal funding that hospitals such as San Francisco General use to treat patients with HIV and AIDS will not be affected by a lack of a budget until September, other HIV/AIDS service providers that rely on other types of state payments will be affected immediately, Davis said. 

Davis alleged that state Assembly Republicans are "putting people's lives in jeopardy'' by dragging their feet and not approving the budget in a timely manner. 

"All the gains we've experienced over the last four years are preserved in the budget that the state Senate has passed on time but the state Assembly has yet to pass,'' Davis said. 

"I have proposed a budget in a very difficult year,'' said Davis, noting that lots of cuts were made to balance the budget in the face of a $23 billion deficit. 

"Virtually all AIDS programs have been kept intact, but benefits of those programs can not go to the hospitals and community-based facilities, and the AIDS-based organizations that serve people until the budget is passed.'' 

Davis implored both Democrats and Republican in the Assembly to "do the right thing'' and pass the budget together. 

"They don't have a plan -- they don't like my plan -- but they don't have an alternative,'' Davis said. 

"If they don't have a plan they should just get out of the way and let the budget pass.''