Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Pushing for Priorities and the Revenues to Support Them

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Please feel free to call or email with questions you have as you go forward and organize your meetings with legislators.

Lew Finfer
(617) 822-1499
Safe Teens/Safe Communities Coalition
Massachusetts Communities Action Network

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  1. 700 of them…………

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    The large crowd at the demonstration gave 15-year-old Luis Roman of Roxbury hope that state and federal officials would restore the programs. The teenagers – numbering 700, according to the organizers – were mobilized by Sociedad Latina, Project RIGHT, the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, and other groups that work with youth.

    “All together, we have so much power,” Roman said outside the State House. “I didn’t think there would be so many people. But after all these people, I’m just confident. I know we’re going to get it.”

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    p>And they talked about the need for additional revenue in their speeches inside and outside the State House

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    Governor Deval Patrick has recommended cutting the programs by another $300,000 in next year’s budget. In addition, Nancy Snyder, Patrick’s point woman on summer jobs, said that federal stimulus money, which subsidized 7,000 jobs last summer, will support only 2,000 jobs this summer.

    To soften the blow, Patrick may use some summer jobs money from next year’s budget for jobs this summer, Snyder said. Patrick is also urging Congress to allocate money for summer employment in a pending jobs bill, she said.

    “It’s good for kids and good for the economy,” Snyder said. “We’re pushing hard for it in the national jobs bill.”

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    p>Kudos to the youth themselves who held state wide planning sessions around this campaign in the last 4 weeks and twittered & FBed and IMed each other constantly to plan the details and execute this first big step in working together to keep themselves and their communities safe.

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    p>from their press release

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    Themes for the action chosen by 40 teen leaders from many organizations meeting Tuesday to plan today’s events were:

    1. More youth jobs will decrease violence
    2. It’s cheaper to raise a well nourished child then to fix broken men & women.

    “When I was 15, I looked for a job but wasn’t able to find one, and I know many of my friends face a similar predicament.  I decided that I wasn’t just going to take this situation; I decided to fight back and help to organize a rally for youth jobs.”

     – Brittany Morgan, teen leader from Dorchester and co-chair of today’s rally and meeting

         Approximately 400 teens and adults are expected at the march and meet .   The march and meeting will highlight 1) the crisis in youth employment, 2) the importance of these programs in advancing the economic well-being of communities across the state, 3) the significance of teen employment to each community’s economy, 4) impact on workforce development, 5)  impact on summer jobs programs, and 6) impact on economic development in communities across the State.  The march is part of a larger statewide campaign, which will include in-district meetings with State Representatives and Senators, as well other large actions.

    Participating organizations include:
    Boston:
    Dorchester Bay Youth Force, Hyde Square Task Force, Spontaneous Celebrations’s Beantown Society, Sociedad Latina, Teen Empowerment, Safe Teens/Safe Communities Coalition, Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) , St. Stephens Teen Group/South End, The City School, Youthaim!, Project RIGHT, Dorchester Youth Collaborative, Health Equity Coalition, Teen Empowerment, Madison Park CDC, High Risk Youth Network, Project Hip-Hop, Massachusetts Communities Action Network, GOTCHA, BYSN, BSAC, YouthWorkers Alliance Policy Committee, High Risk Youth Network, 4th Presbyterian Church, Boston Ten Point Coaliton JP Unidos, The Teen Initiative, Bird Street Youth Center, Dynamy, Pernet Family
    Worcester:
    Oak Hill CDC, Pleasant Street Neighborhood Center in Worcester, Oak Hill CDC/Worcester, Worcester Youth Center, Worcester Interfaith,
    New Bedford:
    Hope Collaborative/New Bedford,
    Lowell:
    United Teen Equality Center/Lowell
    Lynn:
    Oasis Teen Program at St. Stephen’s/Lynn/ECCO

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    p>Kudos to Lew and the dozens of staff people who work with these kids for making a space for them to focus on positive solutions to community problems and make a plan to move into action themselves.  

  2. …maybe you should also bring a list of things that should be cut, to save your programs?  I can understand why this is not the smartest thing to do (areas in the budget that you think should be cut to save your worthy projects will probably have more powerful sponsors–they are not sacred cows for a reason–and you’re endangered for a bigger cut), but it is the intellectually honest thing to do.  I’d hate to be a rank and file state rep, hearing from everyone about their vital program that should not be cut…what they’d like is realistic ways to do what is right, not please, please save my funding (or the redmassgroup’s opposite, “cut it all, they’re all hacks).    

    • …and a variation of what I say to those who support tax cuts.  However, turning this into a zero-sum game just divides and conquers leaving nobody happy.  I suspect a lot of people’s honest answer would be no, don’t cut that either as it has merit; raise taxes instead.

    • No doubt the legislative leadership in the House will include in their official rules for budget debate, the so-called Holland rule,(named after the former Representative Iris Holland (R) from Springfield), which says every budget amendment increasing a line item must be accompanied by an amendment decreasing an equivalent amount from another line item.

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      p>Honored more in the breach actually, especially in these days of consolidated amendments,the rule still forces Legislators to find a line item that can be cut that neither offends their sensibilities, good sense or powerful forces in the leadership. And that, as Pogo pointed out above, is impossible to do.

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      p>The best answer, the most intellectually honest answer, to any Rep or Senator who says there is not money is to reply,

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      p>”Yes there is, there is money to be found in more federal stimulus, there is money to be found in the rainy day fund, there is money to be found in the tax expenditure budget by closing some tax loopholes.

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      p>The Governor has come up with a package of $151 million dollars in closing tax loopholes, millions more from federal stimulus and more from the rainy day fund. And it’s still not enough to close the deficit, so he has proposed to cut our program among others.

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      p>We’re not here to compete with with other public programs that keep our communities and our neighbors safe and healthy. We’re here to ask you, encourage you, to tell you we can give you our support for voting for new taxes — we understand what’s going on here and we can talk to our friends and neighbors so you don’t have to take a no new taxes pledge. Here’s a list of revenue raising options, and we’re ready to talk about them.”

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      p>And you know what — they listen.  

      • Business as usual is expensive and in some cases, deeply destructive.

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        p>Example:  in home services per Rosie D. by a “family stabilization team” or FST – $1500-$4000.  Locking the same mentally ill teenager up in DYS for a year – $23,000.  Failure to fund the “FST” teams costs about $23,000 a teenager and destroys lives and families.

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        p>Example:  providing a guardian ad litem for education (GAL for Education) to ensure a child gets educated – average cost $800 – $1300.  Cost of placing the same child in residential treatment when failure to educate leads to a mental health/emotional breakdown – $150,000.00 a year paid by DCF or a local school district.  The elimination of GALs for eduycation, which cost about 2.5 million in 2007 has a cost to other line items of easily 10 times that, and probably more.

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        p>The reality is that the FSTs are not being fully funded (I was told about 15% of cases where mentally ill children and their families need these services are funded and occurring – maybe someone out there can provide better info; I get case managers to level with me but they all say “but don’t use my name”).

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        p>Example:  Decriminalize the nonviolent crimes listed in Chapter 54 of the Acts of 2005 – it costs $43,000 a year to provide housing by incarceration – community supervision, GED, and other training are way more cost effective.

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        p>Finding money by commonsense – I think we can if we are collectively willing to re-examine some of what has been the standard operating procedure in this state.  

          • And I cannot say I am pleased.  As I have said to you in the past, legal orphans have orphaned issues.

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            p>There are no lobbyists or vendors or nonprofits working these commonsense solutions on the Hill.  No one has these commonsense solutions as #1 on their dance cards, or even in their top ten.

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            p>What I consider to be the actual fiduciary concerns of managing the Commonwealth’s money are often lost because there are no profits or contracts to be had this way, nor are these solutions the most lucrative for those who walk the Hill and have the funds to pay professional lobbyists.

            • in the candidates for Governor. The Globe editorial today urges Cahill and Baker to come up with some specifics saying that nobody benefits when candidates conjure up cuts “out of thin air”.

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              p>I know you have expressed frustration at not getting any response from Governor Patrick on these issues, so the time is right to propose these suggestions to both Baker and Cahil.

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              p>Meanwhile, as I did a month or so ago, I will do a little research to identify the advocacy organizations who are working on these issues and pass on that information to you.  

              • I am focusing personally on legislators, and, currently, “other” constitutional officers.  

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                p>I continue in discussions with Democratic leadership, of course, to the extent they are accessible and willing.

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                p>Op ed and blogging work cointinues, as well as ‘such organizations, candidates, and academics who will dialogue about these issues with someone who is not a ‘stakeholder’, and is not a paid professional lobbyist, as well as “not an academic” – to the extent I can find time while working 60 or so hours a week and maintaining a household.

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                p>But as for Baker and Cahill?  I assume this was a kind of gallows humor for several reasons.  

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                p>For example, kindly grant me the respect of remembering I am the “ballot member” of the 4th Middlesex to the Democratic State Committee and have a fiduciary responsibility to the 25,000 people who voted for me in that regard.  There are certain rules and limits – as well as a voice – that goes with that unpaid, but elected, position.

                • But on a scale of one to ten – where one is “when Jupiter revolves around the Planet Mars” and ten is “happens every year” I give that likelihood a one.

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                  p>And as to certain reps and senators – I am getting those lunches…and like you, they were kind enough to pick up the tab for the State House tuna sandwich or the burrito on the run. I guess as lunch goes, I am a cheap date what with the fact that I don’t touch alochol and don’t need to be impressed.  The major problem I have in that regard (meetings, citizen advocacy) really is that my time available for unpaid advocacy is so limited these days by the relentless pressure of a higher case load and my families needs for me to be earning more than I did before.  Mind you, I am grateful that I can push myself and work longer and harder so far.

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                  p>And, frankly, I have quite a few more scenarios where changing business as usual would mean better results at a substantial savings, at times as much as 90% by solving problems and meeting needs rather than continuing in expensive punitive procedures that don’t work anyway.

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                  p>If the focus is “what is the problem, what are some potential solutions” as opposed to “who can we blame” it is amazing how the focus and discussion shift.

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                  p>If you “just follow the money” it all too often goes down a black hole rather than fulfilling the role of government as a fiduciary for the governed.  And I am not talking about, say pensions.  I am talking about ‘school to prison pipelines’ and punitive unfunded mandates that become mandatory and I am sure I haven’t identified all of them, but what I know about, I can document.  Not to mention the habit of funding those who are already funded and field their own lobbyists and pr corps.

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