Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bay Windows - May 15, 2009
Ethan Jacobs, ejacobs@baywindows.com
Among the programs that lost their earmarks in the Senate Ways and Means budget were programs serving LGBT youth, elders, and domestic violence victims. Advocates are working with lawmakers to file amendments by the end of the day today to restore as much of the earmark language and funding as possible, though they acknowledge that maintaining funding for their programs will be a struggle given the state's fiscal crisis.
The Senate Ways and Means proposal was similar in its treatment of LGBT programs to the proposal released by the committee's House counterpart last month. House Ways and Means eliminated all of the LGBT programming earmarks and made funding cuts to those programs' budget line items. During the amendment process advocates and their allies in the House were successful in restoring earmarks for elder, domestic violence and some youth programs, but none of those earmarks included specific dollar amounts to be spent on those programs.
Lisa Perry-Wood, executive director of the Massachusetts Commission on GLBT Youth, said the commission would work with allies in the Senate to file two amendments, one to restore earmark language for the safe schools program under the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and another to restore language for the Department of Public Health (DPH) LGBT youth programs, which include the commission's funding.
"We are definitely working with senators to sponsor amendments for us. Sen. [Anthony] Galluccio [D-Cambridge] is sponsoring an amendment on the DESE side for the safe schools program, and he's asking for $300,000, which is level funding, and we are very grateful for his leadership," said Perry-Wood.
She said the commission has not yet finalized who will file the DPH amendment, but at a minimum she said the amendment would restore the programming language to the budget, even if it does not include a dollar amount. The FY09 budget included $550,000 in funding for DPH's LGBT youth programs.
Curt Rogers, executive director of the Gay Men's Domestic Violence Project, said his organization is working with other domestic violence agencies that receive funding under the same line item to file an amendment restoring funding to that line item as a whole. He said Sen. Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton), is filing the amendment, and it will also restore the LGBT domestic violence earmark language, although not a dollar amount.
Lisa Krinsky, director of the LGBT Aging Project, said Eldridge would also file an amendment to restore her program's earmark language. She said the amendment will not contain a dollar amount. The Aging Project receives its funding through a line item that funds the Councils on Aging, and Krinsky said the Aging Project is also supporting an amendment that would restore level funding to the Councils on Aging line item. The Aging Project received $80,000 through the Councils on Aging in FY09.
Senate Ways and Means also cut funding for the Department of Public Health's HIV/AIDS budget line item from $37.7 million in FY09 to $34.4 million. The Senate cut was slightly larger than the cut made by the House, where HIV/AIDS advocates elected not to push for an amendment to restore funding. Mary Ann Hart, the lobbyist for the state's AIDS budget lobbying coalition, Project AIDS Budget Legislative Effort (ABLE), said Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz (D-Boston) has filed an amendment to increase funding for the AIDS line item to $35.3 million, which is the amount approved in the House FY10 budget bill. Hart said she believes the Senate will only approve that increase if it also approves a tax increase to generate additional revenue.
"Without a new revenue package, forget it, nobody has a chance of getting anything," said Hart.
The Senate is expected to begin debating budget amendments next week. Once the Senate approves a budget bill the Senate and House will convene a conference committee to draft a compromise budget, which will be sent to Gov. Deval Patrick for his signature.
Perry-Wood said the mood on Beacon Hill throughout the budget process has been dire.
"We're just hearing so much bad news there. Things are so grim that we're going to go for whatever we can get, basically," said Perry-Wood.
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