SAN LUIS OBISPO -- People are fired up over trigger cuts.
Despite the cold and rainy weather, a large crowd descended on Senator Sam Blakeslee's office in San Luis Obispo on Thursday.
They are outraged by the mid-year budget cuts that Governor Brown recently announced.
Organizers of the rally say the state's social safety net is as risk.
"Everybody deserves a fair shake," one shouted.
They wanted Sacramento to hear their concerns, so on Thursday the outraged educators and caregivers, and the frustrated people they serve, met in front of Senator Blakeslee's office.
"This is sad to say -- They might as well just take a gun and shoot half of us here right now and kill us off because that's essentially what's going to be done with these cuts," said Misty Gasperson.
Misty Gasperson, who is on disability, is referring to the trigger cuts.
The Department of Finance says California is short on cash, so nearly $1 billion in automatic cuts are necessary.
Budgets will be slashed for schools, libraries, prisons and in-home support for seniors and the disabled.
"I'm disabled and I want to get out of that -- I'm trying to get out of the system -- and with more cuts, it's making it harder and harder for me to get out," said Gasperson.
"The $23 billion they've cut from public education already -- there's nothing left there -- we're down to cutting buses," said Mark Buchman, a member of the San Luis Coastal Board of Trustees.
Senator Blakeslee was at a meeting in another county during the rally, but his constituents are hoping he'll still get the message.
"I'm hoping that our politicians listen to the bottom line, I mean all these services that we've got in place, they're in place for a reason, they save money in the long run," said Barry Johnson, a mental health services administrator.
Senator Blakeslee issued a statement in response to the rally:
"I opposed the Governor's final budget and voted against the trigger cuts. I spent last year fighting for bipartisan compromise and reform. However, under the budget strategy adopted by the Governor, these trigger cuts were unavoidable. We continue to encourage the Governor to take a different approach this year and embrace bipartisan compromise. We will take the message from those at today's rally and deliver it to Governor Brown: my community stands with me in opposing his partisan all-or-nothing budget ultimatums."
