Bay Windows - January 29, 2009
Ethan Jacobs, ejacobs@baywindows.com

HIV/AIDS advocates said that the emergency budget cuts to the current fiscal year and the FY10 budget proposal amount to more than $2.1 million in cuts to HIV/AIDS funding. The impact on state-funded LGBT programs was less clear. At least two programs, the LGBT Aging Project and the Department of Primary and Secondary Education's (DESE) Safe Schools Program, will be level-funded in FY10 under Patrick's proposal. It is uncertain how much funding is allocated in the budget for LGBT domestic violence programs and for the Department of Public Health's (DPH) LGBT youth programs. All of the programmatic language for LGBT programs has been eliminated from the FY10 proposal, making it difficult to determine how much funding the individual programs will receive.

Patrick issued the recovery plan in response to an estimated $6 billion deficit in FY09 and FY10.

J.C. Considine, a spokesperson for DESE, said the LGBT programmatic language, as well as much of the other earmark language in the budget, was removed by Patrick in an effort to streamline the budget. He confirmed that DESE would continue to provide $300,000 in Safe Schools funding for FY10 under Patrick's proposal.

Yet the deletion of the earmark language from the budget meant that many advocates were unable to determine how much funding their programs would receive. Curt Rogers, executive director of the Gay Men's Domestic Violence Project (GMDVP), said he has contacted DPH to find out the status of funding for LGBT domestic violence services - currently funded at $350,000 - but as Bay Windows went to press he had not received a response.

"We can't say anything yet. It's disappointing that the language didn't make it in. There could be multiple reasons for it, everything from oversight to intention, but with this administration we don't have any reason to think it was intentionally left out," said Rogers. John Jacob, a DPH spokesman, said the agency was still analyzing Patrick's budget proposal and would not be able to provide comment on the status of the domestic violence funding, nor on funding for DPH's LGBT youth programs, by deadline.

Rogers said it was also unclear whether GMDVP would lose funding in the current fiscal year as a result of Patrick's emergency FY09 budget cuts. Patrick cut $38,000 from the line item that contains GMDVP's funding, but the state budget website did not indicate whether any of that money would be taken from GMDVP's budget.

Lisa Krinsky, director of the LGBT Aging Project, said that while the programmatic language for her agency is missing from the FY10 budget proposal, she has been told by officials in the Officer of Elder Affairs that the Aging Project's $80,000 in state funding will not be impacted by the emergency cuts and that it will receive level funding in FY10. Kristina Barry, a spokesperson for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, confirmed that the Aging Project would not be cut in FY09 and that it would be level funded next year.

Krinsky said the Aging Project was "eternally grateful" to maintain its state funding - which amounts to one-third of the agency's annual budget - during a difficult budget cycle. As the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees prepare their own FY10 budget proposals later this year Krinsky said the Aging Project would work to maintain its funding and try to get the programmatic language restored.

"We're hoping we can just ensure there will be language that will support the fact that our funding will be continued," said Krinsky.

Patrick's FY10 budget proposal gave no indication of the fate of DPH's LGBT youth programs. Back in October Patrick cut $150,000 from DPH's $550,000 in LGBT youth funding, but DPH was able to restore much of that money by using funds from other program areas. Patrick made no further cuts to the LGBT youth budget in the latest round of FY09 cuts.

The state HIV/AIDS budget took hits both in the newest round of FY09 emergency cuts as well as in Patrick's FY10 proposal. Combined with the cuts to the HIV/AIDS budget back in October Patrick's cuts amount to about $2.1 million in funding from the $37.7. million AIDS budget over a two-year period. Patrick's FY10 proposal also shifted HIV/AIDS funding from its own line item to a larger infectious disease line item.

Mary Ann Hart, lobbyist for Project AIDS Budget Legislative Effort (ABLE), the state's HIV/AIDS lobbying coalition, said advocates will lobby the legislature at the organization's lobby day Jan. 29 to restore the funding lost in Patrick's budget cuts and to provide at least level funding in the House and Senate FY10 budget proposals.

"The message is that AIDS has been reduced by over $2 million, and we have had some significant programmatic loss. The STD clinic funding has been eliminated. Home care contracts have been greatly reduced. Counseling and testing have been reduced," said Hart.

Rebecca Haag, executive director of AIDS Action Committee (AAC), said she supported the consolidation of the AIDS line item under infectious disease as an effort by Patrick to streamline state agencies and reduce costs.

"I've been supportive of it and hopeful that it will not only increase efficiency at DPH but across the system. ... They're taking several separate functions and bureaucracies within the department and lining up the management," said Haag.

Matt O'Malley, political director for MassEquality, said that despite cuts to HIV/AIDS programs and possible cuts to other LGBT programs the organization supported Patrick's budget proposal. He said MassEquality recognized the state's difficult fiscal situation, and he said MassEquality would work with Patrick as well as with Senate and House Ways and Means to preserve as much funding as possible for LGBT and HIV/AIDS programs.

"But we do recognize it's going to be a very difficult budget season, and we're going to stand with the governor when he puts forward a tough budget bill, and we're going to work with him to protect" LGBT and HIV/AIDS funding, said O'Malley.

He said he had few concerns about the removal of LGBT programmatic language from Patrick's budget proposal, given Patrick's strong support for LGBT rights.

"Given the commitment of this governor that's not a concern," said O'Malley. "Lord knows we've had governors in the not-too-distant past where sirens would be going off if the language was removed. ... We understand that the governor has crafted a responsible budget that is reflective of the times, and if by consolidating some line items he's able to do that we're supportive. And hopefully when the economic forecast is a bit more sunny that would be a time to revisit that notion."

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