Troubled Times Ahead

I am hoping that I can soon pair this blog entry with another one that is headed "Troubled Times Behind." I have been accused (mostly by myself) of being a "terminal optimist," a condition that undoubtedly suits one well for the kind of work we are doing here at PCFA. But for a moment, let's indulge in that delicious state of pessimism and doubt that the world around us, and journalists in particular, are currently so fond of.
Any day now we are expecting a new budget to arrive from Sacramento. (By the way, what do Sacramento and Corpus Christi have in common? Yeah, you got it, they both mean "body of Christ".) Everyone who is anyone, and even a bunch of nobodies, is fully expecting an immediate cut of 3% off of Regional Center budgets. Some RC's are telling us that this cut will be taken "off the top" of any payments made to agencies such as ours. If this comes about, we can certainly live with it, but there are threats that this is "only the beginning." All sorts of dastardly plans are being thrown up against the wall, and no one yet knows what is going to stick.
Protests, marches, and all those wonderful things that sometimes do make a difference are being planned. But in the darkest corners many believe that they are going to fall onto deaf ears; everyone is out there protesting, but as the economy falls to pieces and more and more people are out of work up and down the state there is little sympathy to be garnered.
So we wait, maybe days, maybe weeks, to find out what is going to happen. This company is strong, certainly relative to the others out there. We are one of the largest ABA agencies, with a healthy line of credit, that will give us the flexibility we need in order to retool if there is any retooling that needs to be done. But we are also one of the best out there, so our services are likely to be called upon by those in need even if other agencies should not be able to weather the storm.
As clouds gather overhead, join with me in keeping a watchful eye for silver linings. They are there to be found. And should the rain come, let's use our creativity, cleverness, and passion for this work to forge ahead.