California budget proposal includes $29.4 million more for ADAP

A budget proposal released Monday by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would allocate an additional $29.4 million to the state's AIDS Drug Assistance Program to cover costs for an increasing caseload, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. A total of $263.3 million would go to the state's ADAP under Schwarzenegger's proposal. The proposed budget includes a total of $381 million for the state Office of AIDS Treatment and Prevention Program, which provides funding to local organizations for HIV prevention, testing, housing, and care programs, including ADAP. More than 30,000 low-income HIV-positive Californians are expected to receive anti-HIV medications through the state's ADAP in fiscal 2005-2006. Schwarzenegger's plan to boost ADAP spending was praised by AIDS activists throughout the state. "Low-income people with HIV and AIDS can breathe a huge sigh of relief today as a result of the governor's compassionate decision," said Dana Van Gorder, San Francisco AIDS Foundation's director of state and local affairs, in a press statement. "The ability of low-income people living with HIV and AIDS to access this program is a matter of life and death, and the governor clearly recognized this fact. AIDS advocates are especially thankful to him for fully funding ADAP at a time when the state continues to face significant fiscal challenges." AIDS Project Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center also issued press releases praising the governor's proposal to increase ADAP spending in the next fiscal year.