State Treasurer Calls for Action by Older Adults
An incredibly knowledgeable public official with a soft spot for villages issued a compelling call to action at a recent Ashby Village Arts and Culture virtual event.
In a spirited presentation, State Treasurer Fiona Ma covered a wide range of topics of concern to older adults, stressed how important villages like ours are to ensuring that we age with dignity and independence and outlined a number of things that could and should be done by anyone who wants to contribute to long range planning for older people. (If you missed it, you can watch the recorded version here: https://youtu.be/cOtrLByHPEA or by clicking the video above.)
Ma’s appearance was attended by more than 200 people – a number that impressed the State official, as it was the largest virtual group of the 90 webinars that she’s been a part of during shelter-in-place! She was introduced by Berkley community activist Deborah Matthews, who credited state and local governments with breaking new ground.
Now is the time for comments
Ma, who served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and in the California Legislature before being elected a State Treasurer, spent a fair amount of time talking about the importance of providing input to the Governor’s Master Plan for Aging about the role of villages and other policies to help seniors and their caregivers. The Plan is due to be released in December. Comments are being accepted now.
“The time to comment is right now,” Ma said, explaining that the Master Plan may address a public benefit to cover Long-Term Services and Supports and could include support for caregivers – 2/3 of whom are family members. It will lay out a vision for the next ten years and will be updated periodically.
“Clearly not everything can be done in one year. You all will play a critical role not just now but afterwards. It’s a living plan to be updated every few years. Your work is just beginning,” she said. The plan is being developed from recommendations made by a stakeholder committee, comments from the public and expertise from the State Health and Human Services Department.
Her personal connection to aging at home
Ma fully understands the role of villages and the concept of helping older people grow old in their homes and communities. “The village model is so uniquely adapted to each local community and is so grass roots oriented.” She said it isn’t clear how the state will incorporate villages into the Master Plan and what it might recommend to make the village model sustainable. And she has a personal interest in it: she lives with her parents. Her firefighter husband’s father lives down the street and his mother is relocating to Northern California.
A crisis for families and the state
In less than an hour, Ma and Sarah Steenhausen, senior policy analyst for the SCAN Foundation, described a number of efforts to help older adults and resources available to address housing and other challenges such as how to pay for long term care. “This is a crisis for families and for the state,” said Ma, pointing to a study just released about policy options to finance long term care. “Hopefully it will be included in the Master Plan.” She has created and chairs a number of Task Forces addressing some of these issues. She encouraged people to contact her with questions or concerns at askfiona@treasurer.ca.gov
It was a dazzling demonstration on how much influence a knowledgeable public official can have in an extremely important position. Calling herself “our banker,” she said $2.6 trilllion comes into “her” bank and that gives her leverage to explore many issues.