Schwarzenegger Vetos $52M in Critical AIDS Funding

Governor Schwarzenegger today line-item vetoed close to $52 million in funding to the State Office of AIDS. These funds support education and prevention, therapeutic monitoring, counseling and testing, early intervention, home and community based care, and housing.

Although Californians living with HIV and AIDS will still have access to lifesaving medications, more residents will be at risk of infection because of dramatic cuts to education and prevention efforts.

“These cuts are both fiscally short-sighted and immoral, given the grave human cost,” said Geoff Kors, executive Director of Equality California (EQCA). “More people will contract HIV and some will die from AIDS earlier or have a harder time managing their disease because we are not investing in early intervention, testing or counseling. People will lack support in their homes and communities, where they often receive the best and most culturally competent care. And low-income people living with HIV and AIDS will be more likely to become homeless. The Governor is dismantling a proven model of wrap-around care for HIV that has made California a leader. The Governor shouldn’t try to solve California’s fiscal crisis on the backs of our state’s most vulnerable,” Kors said.