At the beginning of this year, three San Fernando Valley nonprofit organizations Valley Community Clinic, Northeast Valley Health Corporation and Child and Family Guidance Center were awarded a combined $2 million in state-funded county contracts to provide children’s outreach, enrollment and retention in state-funded insurance plans. But when Gov. Schwarzenegger devised a new budget, approved by the state legislature Aug. 21, those grants were eliminated. “This was one of 50 individual line item vetoes that the governor made to build up a sizable budget reserve because of the uncertainties we’re seeing with those revenues and certain expenditures,” explained H.D. Palmer, deputy director for the state Department of Finance. As a result of the budget cuts, the three area nonprofits in question are now scrambling to fill in the unforeseen holes in their coffers, according to Judi Rose, vice president of development and government affairs for Valley Community Clinic in North Hollywood. Thus far, four people have been cut from Valley Community Clinic’s staff of 150. “The funds that were cut not only bring money into the clinic but thousands of new patients,” Rose said. “Staffing patterns to accommodate growth will be impacted. We don’t know yet what the ripple effects will be, or, in turn, how many children will not be able to be insured.” Rose said that, while the clinic is always in the process of raising money, fundraising can’t be counted on to make up for the loss. “Children are our most valuable resource and they’ve just been cut off from their health care all over the state,” she said. “Hundreds of thousands of children,” have been affected. Helen Arriola, director of development and external affairs for the Northeast Valley Health Corp. in San Fernando, explained how the cuts will make it difficult to meet the goal of retaining 70 percent of the estimated 12,000 Valley children in health plans this year. At Northeast Valley Health, nine individuals out of a total of 24 whose duties are related to the grant could be adversely affected by the cut, with two being reassigned and seven being let go. “The cuts to the grant that the governor [made were] actually for the staff that enrolled the children into the managed care plans and Healthy Families program,” Arriola said. “Without the enrollers, the children won’t be able to reenroll themselves. It’s a lengthy application program. They simply won’t do it themselves.” Rose agreed, calling the application process onerous. “People who are not well educated it’s virtually impossible,” she said. “We have trained people to do this, and even then at least 50 percent of applications are kicked back erroneously. Even people who do it professionally have to spend time arguing with the bureaucracy. We anticipate that de-enrollment will go sky high because all those people who are helping them to re-enroll are gone.” While Arriola also believes that there will be a drop in children enrolling in plans such as Healthy Families, Palmer has a different expectation. “There’s $147 million still remaining, even after this veto, to fund other components,” he said. “We will still continue to contract directly with certain nonprofits. We will still see increases in enrollment of children in the Healthy Families program. In light of this veto, there will be nearly 65,000 more children enrolled in Healthy Families this year under this budget than there were last year.” But Rose’s outlook remains bleak. “That’s millions of dollars over three years that is not in the economy, and a whole lot of parents who may not be showing up for work or spending a lot of time in the emergency room,” she said. “I think this type of funding ended up being cut because it’s quiet.” In light of the cuts to the children’s outreach initiative, Arriola finds statements Gov. Schwarzenegger has made regarding the budget to be hypocritical. “Essentially, the governor states that the health care cuts that he made did not affect children, when, in fact, they do,” she said.