Posted on 04/19/2006 12:22:45 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO — Concerned about threats that include a flu pandemic and bioterrorist attacks, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his support Tuesday for a new state Department of Public Health.
The governor is embracing legislation by Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento) to establish a California office focused on concerns such as outbreaks of disease and food poisoning, and overseeing care of 100,000 people living in nursing homes.
"The governor is focused on getting ahead of the game and being visionary," Margita Thompson, a Schwarzenegger press secretary, said Tuesday.
Ortiz's legislation would also restructure California's Department of Health Services, which focuses much of its effort on overseeing the $34-billion Medi-Cal program, which pays for healthcare for the poor.
The state earmarks about $2 billion for local public health programs, though Schwarzenegger's new budget proposes a modest increase to pay for emergency preparedness.
The governor's announcement, made at a conference in San Francisco commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 1906 earthquake, follows a suggestion his advisors made when he took office in 2003.
The Little Hoover Commission, a state government watchdog, also has called for creation of a public health department, as have county and city public health officers, and the California Medical Assn.
There is a position called public health officer within the Department of Health Services. Ortiz and others say the post lacks the independent power, however, of a director of a separate public health department.
--snip--
"I'm glad the governor is doing an about-face and is going to join Democrats to best address California's health needs," Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) said in a statement.
Although he voiced his support for the legislation, Schwarzenegger also requested that Ortiz make some changes, the senator said Tuesday. Ortiz had envisioned a public health board with broad authority. The governor dislikes that provision.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
MEASURE: SB 162 AUTHOR: Ortiz TOPIC: State Department of Public Health. DATE: 01/26/2006 LOCATION: SEN. FLOOR MOTION: Senate 3rd Reading SB162 Ortiz (AYES 22. NOES 12.) (PASS) AYES Alarcon Alquist Bowen Chesbro Ducheny Dunn Escutia Figueroa Florez Kehoe Kuehl Lowenthal Machado Ortiz Perata Romero Scott Simitian Soto Speier Torlakson Vincent NOES Aanestad Ackerman Ashburn Cox Denham Dutton Hollingsworth Maldonado Margett McClintock Morrow Poochigian ABSENT, ABSTAINING, OR NOT VOTING Battin Cedillo Migden Murray Runner Vacancy
Schwarzenegger State of the State speech -- January 2004(snip)
We cannot afford waste and fraud in any department or agency.
Every governor proposes moving boxes around to reorganize government.
I don't want to move the boxes around; I want to blow them up.
The executive branch of this government is a mastodon frozen in time and about as responsive.
This is not the fault of our public servants but of the system.
We have multiple departments with overlapping responsibilities.
I say consolidate them.
We have boards and commissions that serve no pressing public need. I say abolish them.
If McClintock opposes it, so do I.
Every day I thank my lucky stars that I had the brains to escape loopy Kalifornia 25 years ago. This latest agency will soon get hard at work interfering in Kalif citizens' daily lives. Expect to see friendly fascism like you've never seen it before.
The do-gooders won't rest until you are all safe and quiet. Anyone who would oppose this new agency is obviously mentally ill and thus subject to forced "treatment" (I think that's what they call ECT and Thorazine). For your own good, of course.
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