CURB Joins Campaign Rejecting the Governor's Budget Proposal and Calling for $5 Billion More to go to Education, Health & Human Services

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 28th, 2014 

MEDIA CONTACT: Emily Harris, Californians United for a Responsible Budget
Emily@curbprisonspending.org or 510-435-1176

When & Where:  Tuesday, April 29th

  • 9:00AM – Assembly Public Safety, Room 126
  • 12:45PM – Rally & Press Conference, East Lawn of the Capitol

Sacramento – On Tuesday, April 29th, Assembly Public Safety Committee will hold hearings on a controversial proposal to spend an additional $1.2 billion subsidizing county jail expansion. Members of Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), advocating to reduce state spending on prison expansion, will attend and have joined the call for $5 Billion more in 2014.

“Poor people and people of color have been devastated and disenfranchised as our social safety net has been shredded and our schools were defunded, while billions were being wasted in prison and jail construction,” says Debbie Reyes of the California Prison Moratorium Project.  “But residents of counties across the state are sick of it and they are fighting back.  Poll after poll shows Californians want a change.  Now is the time for county and state politicians to get with the program, or get out of the way.”

A 2014 report by the Legislative Analyst Office recommends that proposals for new jail construction funding be put on hold until the state conducts an analysis of what space is needed and whether counties have maximized alternatives to creating jail space.

Following the hearing, criminal justice advocates will join students, educators, parents and health & welfare advocates saying to the Governor “it’s raining now!” At 12:45pm hundreds of umbrellas will open up on the steps of the Capitol with a 2014-15 budget proposal of their own – one that calls for $5 billion more in funding going towards the urgent needs of California’s families and children.  While not rejecting the Governor’s rainy day fund or debt repayment plans outright, the group wants to see the funding to them reduced, as well as calling for no additional funds for prison or jail expansion.  The group calls for an Oil Extraction Tax that would raise $2 billion anually.Students, low income families and educators will speak to the struggles they and their communities face because the state has not yet to come close to restoring the billions in cuts since 2008.  CSUs and UCs are both still nearly $1 billion behind 2007-08 levels; CalWorks, $3.5 billion; Homecare/IHSS $333 million; child care $1 billion; health care $3.7 billion, and the list goes on.  Prop 30 funds have not come near to restoring the $20 billion cut from K-12 schools.

The over 30 organizations joining the call for $5 Billion more in 2014 include:  ACCE, California Federation of Teachers (CFT), PICO CA, Health Access, Courage Campaign, California Faculty Association (CFA), California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC), California Partnership (CAP), CREDO, Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), UAW 4123, California Calls, Alameda County Community Food Bank, Bay View Newspaper, California Alliance for Retired Americans, California Association of Food Banks, California Child Care Resource and Referral Network Services, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, Community Health Partnership, California NOW, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, Dignity and Power Now, Great Beginnings for Black Babies, Inc, Grey Panthers, Human Rights of the Incarcerated, Hunger Action, Services Immigrant Rights and Education Network, Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Low-Income Self-Help Center, Parent Voices, St. Mary’s Center, Western Regional Advocacy Project, Youth Justice Coalition.

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