AND – AS revenue rebounds, reverse the cuts.
The reality is that there are fewer safety net services today to help struggling families care for children or manage mentally ill children’s care then there were 10 years ago – DCF no longer has the ability to do one service voluntary cases see, caseloads are up, the availability of parent aids to train the parents of handicapped children or newborns is way down, the availability of daycare to help a parent re-enter the job market is down…there are no more Guardian Ad Litems for education [eliminated in 2008 ostensibly for budget reasons by Chief Justice for Administration and Management Mulligan]
If revenue and jobs are recovering, the rallying cry on behalf of vulnerable children and struggling families including the homeless whether or not due to foreclosure, and the job-hunting unemployed MUST be:
NO MORE CUTS TO HUMAN SERVICES
REVERSE THE CUTS TO HUMAN SERVICES AS REVENUE RECOVERS
The Gov reversed $32 million of cuts just yesterday. Details.
Certain of these cuts do not have vocal constituencies, David, and I want to do my part to ensure that restoring these critical services, such as parent aids, educational guardian ad litems, guardian at litems generally, etc. are also considered for restoration. These are not union positions, no agencies or NGOs live off these kinds of services, there are no lobbyists to protect them, you know?
Cuts will end only when tax revenue rises, and the State is already in the hole by hundreds of millions. The one-time expenditures and budgetary tricks were used up last year, and the “revenue” those strategies permitted must also be made up too. It’s along way up in increases of revenue needed to be able to restore cuts. The recent Federal transfer payments are an example of one-time revenue sources.
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p>Is the proponant willing to organize to increase taxes this year to solve the problem? The reason for needing the cuts must be met to accomplish the proponant’s desires.
instead of six to eight six-figure deputies at the Department of Transportation, Governor Patrick could have only 3, like his predecessor? Lets cut the fat instead of the meat.
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p>http://www.boston.com/news/loc…
A little perspective:
A couple of deputy salaries will not cure a $5.2+ billion-dollar MBTA debt. All of the fares of the MBTA are going to service debt at this time.
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p>At 5 percent interest, the interest alone, without paying it down is $250+ million a year. The actual debt service is $367 million, and for comparison, the entire budget for wages is $385 million on employee salaries and $170 million on fringe benefits, for $555 million total.
Source: Woolhouse, Megan. Boston Globe. (Feb 13, 2009) MBTA faces fare hikes, cuts in service: Drastic options weighed to pay down $5.2b debt
and it may be baby steps towards fiscal sanity, but it’s a start. Cutting services to people with disabilities while on a hiring spree is no way to make people believe you have your heart and soul in the right place. After all, this was supposed to be “no more business as usual.”
It’s the equivalent of putting out a fire with an eyedropper; the eydropper-holder would be dead before accomplishing a result, and the fire would have consumed everything in sight.
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p>An entirely different category of change effort is required, and it is going to cost money. Those billions need to be paid down, and only taxes will get there. User fees don’t even pay the interest.