Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

  • Shop
  • Subscribe to BMG
  • Contact
  • Log In
  • Front Page
  • All Posts
  • About
  • Rules
  • Events
  • Register on BMG

Pushing for Priorities and the Revenues to Support Them

February 18, 2010 By Harmony Blakeway

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

Please share these materials with any other organizations that might find them helpful!

Please share widely!
fb-share-icon
Tweet
0
0

Filed Under: User Tagged With: budget-priorities, fy11, massachusetts, revenue-policies

Comments

  1. judy-meredith says

    February 19, 2010 at 8:41 am

    700 of them…………

    <

    p>

    <

    p>

    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.”

    <

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

    <

    p>

    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.”

    <

    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.

    <

    p>from their press release

    <

    p>

    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

    <

    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.  

    • judy-meredith says

      February 19, 2010 at 9:14 am

      Showing Senator Chang Diaz, Rep Marty Walsh and Rep Linda Dorcena Forry talking to a packed house in Gardiner Auditorium.

      <

      p>http://www.statehousenews.com/…

      <

      p>Someday I’ll learn how to embed videos.

  2. pogo says

    February 19, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    …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).    

    • christopher says

      February 20, 2010 at 2:17 pm

      …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.

    • judy-meredith says

      February 20, 2010 at 6:39 pm

      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.

      <

      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.

      <

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

      <

      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.

      <

      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.

      <

      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.”

      <

      p>And you know what — they listen.  

      • amberpaw says

        February 20, 2010 at 9:55 pm

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

        <

        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.

        <

        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.

        <

        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”).

        <

        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.

        <

        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.  

        • judy-meredith says

          February 21, 2010 at 9:43 am

          why is it so rare?
          Good ideas AmberPaw. Good ideas that have been around a while actually.

          <

          p>Ever wonder why they have never been taken up?

          • amberpaw says

            February 21, 2010 at 10:20 am

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

            <

            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.

            <

            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.

            • judy-meredith says

              February 21, 2010 at 10:54 am

              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”.

              <

              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.

              <

              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.  

              • amberpaw says

                February 21, 2010 at 11:28 am

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

                <

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

                <

                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.

                <

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

                <

                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.

                • judy-meredith says

                  February 21, 2010 at 1:06 pm

                  What would you say or do if either Cahill or Baker called you up and said let’s sit down and talk. I think you have a good idea there.  

                • amberpaw says

                  February 21, 2010 at 3:45 pm

                  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.

                  <

                  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.

                  <

                  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.

                  <

                  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.

                  <

                  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.

Recommended Posts

  • No posts liked yet.

Recent User Posts

Predictions Open Thread

December 22, 2022 By jconway

This is why I love Joe Biden

December 21, 2022 By fredrichlariccia

Garland’s Word

December 19, 2022 By terrymcginty

Some Parting Thoughts

December 19, 2022 By jconway

Beware the latest grift

December 16, 2022 By fredrichlariccia

Thank you, Blue Mass Group!

December 15, 2022 By methuenprogressive

Recent Comments

  • blueeyes on Beware the latest griftSo where to, then??
  • Christopher on Some Parting ThoughtsI've enjoyed our discussions as well (but we have yet to…
  • Christopher on Beware the latest griftI can't imagine anyone of our ilk not already on Twitter…
  • blueeyes on Beware the latest griftI will miss this site. Where are people going? Twitter?…
  • chrismatth on This site (will be disabled on) December 31, 2022I joined BMG late - 13 years ago next month and three da…
  • SomervilleTom on Geopolitics of FusionEVERY un-designed, un-built, and un-tested technology is…
  • Charley on the MTA on This site (will be disabled on) December 31, 2022That’s a great idea, and I’ll be there on Sunday. It’s a…

Archive

@bluemassgroup on Twitter

#mapoli

mszafranski413 Matt Szafranski @mszafranski413 ·
1h

Senator @ewarren announces her bid for a third term, launching a race much different from her prior two and after her unsuccessful bid for president. But the context of the moment plays to her strengths as a crusading consumer advocate. #mapoli https://www.wmasspi.com/2023/03/briefings-elizabeth-warren-rides-again-officially-now.html

Reply on Twitter 1640566901070868480 Retweet on Twitter 1640566901070868480 1 Like on Twitter 1640566901070868480 Twitter 1640566901070868480
jonathancohn Jonathan 'Boo and Vote' Cohn @jonathancohn ·
2h

.@BillHumphreyMA's birthday is today. He might not see this on Twitter anymore, but he will see your birthday wishes if you donate $32 to his birthday fundraiser. #mapoli

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/billhumphreyma32

Reply on Twitter 1640556594864828416 Retweet on Twitter 1640556594864828416 1 Like on Twitter 1640556594864828416 3 Twitter 1640556594864828416
jacquelynmryan Mx. Jacquelyn Ryan @jacquelynmryan ·
2h

Knowledge is power and the citizens have a right to know what the least transparent state legislature in the country is doing with their money. #AuditTheLegislature #mapoli

Diana DiZoglio @DianaDiZoglio

Knowledge is power, and power should belong to the people.
#mapoli #auditthelegislature @InsideLowell

Reply on Twitter 1640552850978635778 Retweet on Twitter 1640552850978635778 Like on Twitter 1640552850978635778 Twitter 1640552850978635778
our_cambridge Your Cambridge MA @our_cambridge ·
2h

RECORD COLD EAST WEST + CHICAGO

Remember:

·RECORD COLD = Proof of man-made Ice Age climate crisis

·Crisis always fault of Americans creating abundance and plentiful food

·Wash DC MUST PUNISH we Americans even more

#CambMA #NHpolitics #MAsen #VTtax #MEpolitics #MApoli Vermont

3

Leigh Giangreco @LeighGiangreco

Can think of nothing more Chicago than covering a mayoral election on a 14-degree March day and I walk into a Mexican restaurant playing Uncle Buck

Reply on Twitter 1640545982629703683 Retweet on Twitter 1640545982629703683 Like on Twitter 1640545982629703683 Twitter 1640545982629703683
rwwatchma Trump's election fraud hoax undermines democracy @rwwatchma ·
3h

#mapoli #nhpolitics

Tony - Resistance @TonyHussein4

For Rupert Murdoch, only the money matters. Fox "News" hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham, pushed election fraud claims, knowing they were untrue. Don't trust Rupert Murdoch's media empire, which includes the New York Post (NY Post), & The Wall Street Journal.

Reply on Twitter 1640543880142630912 Retweet on Twitter 1640543880142630912 Like on Twitter 1640543880142630912 Twitter 1640543880142630912
rwwatchma Trump's election fraud hoax undermines democracy @rwwatchma ·
3h

It doesn't explain why @realDonaldTrump deleted the post. Did @SeanHannity ask him why it was deleted and if he knows threatening DAs in NY state is a felony? #mapoli #nhpolitics

Acyn @Acyn

Trump: That was to baseball to promote made in America 
Hannity: Do you know how it was interpreted?
Trump: Well, because that’s the fake news media.

Reply on Twitter 1640542972394500098 Retweet on Twitter 1640542972394500098 1 Like on Twitter 1640542972394500098 Twitter 1640542972394500098
Load More

From our sponsors




Google Calendar







Search

Archives

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter




Copyright © 2023 Owned and operated by BMG Media Empire LLC. Read the terms of use. Some rights reserved.