Budget woes could delay employment program

SACRAMENTO, July 14 (UPI) -- California's budget woes could dampen a program intended to help find jobs for developmentally disabled adults, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has outlined a plan to help 20,000 Californians with developmental disabilities get jobs by spotlighting companies having success hiring disabled people, the newspaper said Monday.

At the same time, trying to plug a $15.2 billion state budget deficit, Schwarzenegger is proposing to cut roughly $7 million from state-supported, non-profit agencies that help developmentally disabled adults find jobs and coach those workers on the job until they have become proficient, the newspaper said.

Schwarzenegger proposed the employment program, inspired by his wife, California first lady Maria Shriver, the governor's office said.

"What the first lady wants to do, we're all for," said Will Sanford, interim executive director of the California Disability Services Association, which represents 110 organizations that provide services to people with developmental disabilities.

"We just don't know how to make it happen given the flip side, which is taking money out of the system that is designed to make it happen."

Daniel Zingale, Shriver's chief of staff, said the budget shortfall was no reason to stop setting ambitious goals.

"In the toughest of times you can't just become immersed in the cuts or the struggle to stay afloat," Zingale told the Times.

Seventy percent of the estimated 90,000 people with developmental disabilities of working age in California are unemployed, the reported said.