Bay Windows - March 3, 2008
Ethan Jacobs, ejacobs@baywindows.com

But it wasn't the only organization petitioning the legislature for badly needed funds. Beginning that morning and continuing through the afternoon, a parade of health and human service agencies took turns pitching their funding requests to the committee. Many of the agencies, working on issues as diverse as autism, the environment, school health programs, sign language interpreters and adult disability services, told lawmakers heartbreaking stories about the impact of past budget cuts on their clients and the desperate need to increase funding and block further cuts.

Following the hearing Project ABLE's lobbyist, Mary Ann Hart, said the outlook for this year's budget is uncertain this early in the cycle. In Gov. Deval Patrick's budget proposal the HIV/AIDS line item received an increase of about $225,000, a far cry from the $6 million sought by Project ABLE. Hart said this year will be a particularly difficult one in which to seek increases, pointing to comments made by House Speaker Sal DiMasi to the Boston Globe that he expected to make about $100 million in cuts to this year's budget.

"It might be the toughest year since the budget crisis a few years ago," said Hart, referring to Fiscal Year 2002, when a budget crunch prompted the state to slash about $10 million from the HIV/AIDS budget line item. The HIV/AIDS budget has not yet recovered from those cuts; in the current fiscal year, FY08, the line item has received $36.9 million, far below the $51.1 million it received in FY01.

During the hearing two members of organizations that are part of the Project ABLE coalition, Cynthia Harris, director of HIV prevention for the Multicultural AIDS Coalition, and Tim Purington, director of prevention services for Tapestry Health, made the case to lawmakers for the $6 million increase.

"Project ABLE is requesting a $6 million increase, and in that increase there is some really exciting opportunities for us to continue to be the cutting edge state that we've been across the nation," said Harris.

She said $2 million of the total request would go towards reducing HIV/AIDS-related racial and ethnic disparities. Harris told lawmakers that while black and Hispanic people as groups each make up six percent of the Massachusetts population, over 28 percent of Bay Staters living with HIV/AIDS are black and 25 percent are Hispanic. She also said 53 percent of all 13-to-24-year-old gay men diagnosed with HIV between 2004 and 2006 were black or Hispanic.

The funding for eliminating health disparities would be used to expand prevention and education programs in communities of color, including the expansion of programs targeting black and Latino gay men. The funding would also go towards rapid HIV testing and counseling in communities of color, partner counseling and referral services to identify the partners of people who test positive for HIV, and testing and prevention work within the state correctional system.

Purington, who works in Holyoke and Springfield, told lawmakers that HIV/AIDS is having a devastating affect across the state, not just within the Greater Boston.

"In the city of Holyoke, a small city of less than 40,000 people, it has the second highest AIDS rate in the state," said Purington. The vast majority of those diagnosed with AIDS, he said, are people of color.

He said among the funds sought by Project ABLE are $2 million to restore prevention and education funding that was lost during prior cuts to target people at high risk for HIV infection. He said the coalition wants an additional $2 million to restore client services funding.

Purington also asked lawmakers to maintain $16.6 million in level funding for the HIV MassHealth Program, which provides health insurance coverage to people with low incomes who test positive for HIV. He said level-funding the program would "ensure that everyone in the Commonwealth has access to these life-saving drugs."

Following their testimony there was just one question from the committee. Sen. Dianne Wilkerson (D-Boston) asked the panel whether the $4 million request for prevention and education and client services would also target communities of color. Hart explained that while the $2 million targeting health disparities would be spent exclusively in communities of color, the remaining $4 million would target all at-risk communities, including communities of color.

After the hearing Hart told Bay Windows that Project ABLE will be working to get consumers from HIV/AIDS service organizations to lobby their legislators and ask for the funding increase.

"We're working with all of our organizations across the state to target legislators in those particular service areas," said Hart. She said she expects the House to release its budget proposal in April and the Senate to follow with its proposal in May. A conference committee will then work to hammer out a compromise budget based on both proposals in June.

As the budget lobbying season heats up, Project ABLE has faced criticism from coalition members arguing that the organization has not been effective. In January AIDS Action Committee withdrew from the coalition and gave up its seat on the steering committee, complaining that the organization has not been aggressive enough in pressing for increased funding, and other members of the coalition told Bay Windows they had doubts about its effectiveness (see "Advocates disagree on HIV/AIDS lobby strategy," Feb. 13, 2008). But despite their differences, AIDS Action said it supports Project ABLE's efforts to lobby for $6 million in increased funding

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