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

The final version of the budget was drafted by a conference committee featuring members of the House and Senate, who worked to iron out the differences in the budget bills passed by their respective chambers. LGBT advocates had two goals during the conference committee process: to convince the committee to adopt the HIV/AIDS funding level approved by the House, which was $500,000 higher than the Senate, and to adopt the LGBT youth programming budget passed by the Senate, which was $100,000 higher than the House. They succeeded on both fronts.

"In the end, we were optimistic throughout. ... It ultimately came down to prioritizing and making sure we showed from a community standpoint that our constituents and members care about these programs," said Matt McTighe, political director of MassEquality, one of the organizations pressing for the increases, along with the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus and Project ABLE (AIDS Budget Legislative Effort).

The final budget contains increases for every LGBT-related program. For the Department of Public Health's (DPH) LGBT youth programs the legislature allocated $550,000, a $200,000 increase over the prior year. The Department of Primary and Secondary Education's LGBT programs received $300,000, a $100,000 increase over FY08. The state funding for LGBT domestic violence programs increased from $250,000 in FY08 to $350,000 in FY09. Funding for the LGBT Aging Project rose from $60,000 in FY08 to $80,000 in FY09.

The budget also included major gains for the state's HIV/AIDS funding. The HIV/AIDS line item grew to $37.7 million, a $725,000 increase over the prior year. Within that new funding $500,000 is devoted towards addressing disparities in communities of color.

Mary Ann Hart, lobbyist for Project ABLE, credited conference committee members Rep. Marie St. Fleur (D-Dorchester) and Sen. Michael Knapick (R-Westfield) with helping ensure that the AIDS funding increase made it into the final budget. She said the $500,000 for communities of color will help expand prevention efforts and counseling and testing in those communities.

"DPH thinks they could do something very significant with that in communities of color and other communities that have high numbers, so we'll defer to DPH to see what they come up with and we'll be working on that as well," said Hart.

MassEquality and other advocates originally sought much larger increases in all of the LGBT and HIV/AIDS related areas of the budget. McTighe said MassEquality will take a wait-and-see approach in deciding whether to seek additional funding via a supplemental budget request depending on whether it seems like such a request would be successful.

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