A statewide "day of action" is being held today to protest elimination of $191 million in tax rebates for low-income elderly and disabled Californians.
Organized rallies have been been scheduled in San Francisco (noon at the State Building, 501 Van Ness Ave.), Los Angeles and San Diego.
Advocates for the disabled and low-income people are urging people to call or write Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as state legislators, to reverse or override the veto that eliminated the decades-old Senior Citizens Property Tax Assistance Program.
The program provides annual rebates of up to $347.50 to senior, blind and disabled renters whose household earns less than $44,096 per year. Last year, 467,000 renter households received payments of $316 per household. A total of $150 million of the rebates are directed to renters, with $41 million to low-income homeowners who are senior, blind, or disabled.
Those funds were eliminated without forewarning as part of Schwarzenegger's plan to reduce the state's budget deficit.
"I'd say we're very cautiously optimistic that this statewide day of action will get the governor's attention and hopefully get him to reconsider those cuts," said Dean Preston, executive director of Tenants Together, a statewide organization for renter's rights. "We understand that we have a difficult fight ahead of us, but there are a lot of tenants out there who applied for those funds and are counting on them heavily.
"That check doesn't sound like a lot of money to some of us, but we've heard from a lot of people who, without that money, are literally going to have to choose between food, medicine or paying their rent."
Cordelia Murphy of Rolling Start, a disability-rights organization based in San Bernardino, is one person who said she'll feel an impact on her life from the elimination of the program.
"I was planning to use (the money) for utilities and groceries," she said. "As it is, I'm struggling. I barely have enough money to survive. I have two children to feed."
Nan Brasmer, president of the California Alliance for Retired Americans, called Schwarzenegger's veto of the rebates "a slap in the face of the neediest seniors.
"To add insult to injury, the governor also cut the tax rebate for homeowners, which also targets lower income homeowners, many of whom are seniors," she said. "We call on our legislators to override the governor's veto and restore these rebates as soon as possible."
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