State budget cuts cause anger, fightback
By
Frank Neisser
Boston
Published Oct 24, 2008 8:32 PM
Poor and working people are fighting back as the economic crisis slams into the
Massachusetts state budget. On Oct. 15, Gov. Deval Patrick announced planned
state budget cuts of over $1 billion, including cutting 1,000 jobs. The cuts
will be widespread, impacting state universities and community colleges, health
insurance programs and dozens of social service programs—from assistance
for at-risk teens to services for the mentally ill and the elderly.
Oct. 18 protest demanding full funding for housing.
WW photo: Liz Green
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Advocates for the blind are planning a late-October protest of Patrick’s
elimination of funding for Ferguson Industries for the Blind, a state-run
business in Malden, which will lead to layoffs of 25 visually-impaired workers.
The advocates are also objecting to reductions in funding for basics like
magnifying glasses and talking clocks for poor, elderly, blind residents. The
state’s mental health budget will be cut by $9.3 million. According to
mental health workers, hundreds of people with mental disabilities will lose
services, leading to hospitalizations, incarcerations and even deaths.
The biggest cuts, nearly $300 million, will be to Medicaid payments to
hospitals and health clinics for the poor. Family shelters will lose $1
million, and there will be deep cuts in HIV/AIDS prevention funds and substance
abuse programs. The Department of Social Services, responsible for protecting
children from child abuse and neglect, will be cut by $15 million.
Margaret Woovis, who runs a home care program for seniors, said she will lay
off staff and cut services in half. “Epidemic is probably the
word,” she said. “This is happening to everyone,
everywhere.”
The Boston School Committee held a public hearing on Oct. 15 on the
superintendent’s recent proposal to close and consolidate numerous
schools. The hearing was packed with young people appealing to the committee
not to close their schools. Schools serving the most at-risk students have been
targeted for closing, further impacting oppressed communities already suffering
from unequal access to quality education. The plan is an attack on
desegregation, and also threatens the loss of union jobs.
City Councilor Chuck Turner, who heads the City Council’s Education
Committee, has scheduled a public hearing on the closing plan for Oct. 21. The
International Action Center and the Boston School Bus Drivers Union, USW Local
8751, are working with community organizations like Work for Quality and Boston
Parents Organizing Network to fight these cuts. The union just successfully
showed how to fight back against cutbacks, defeating a second round of
company-attempted layoffs since ratification of their contract in September.
The contract includes “no reduction in force” language, won by
rank-and-file militant action.
On Oct. 15, Councilor Turner along with City Councilor Charles Yancey held the
first of a series of “Community Foreclosure Prevention Meetings” at
Prince Hall in Roxbury. Future meetings will also be held in Dorchester,
Mattapan, Hyde Park and Roslindale. More than 80 homeowners, tenants, community
organization members and lawyers from the National Lawyers Guild and the
Greater Boston Legal Services participated in the event. Some signed on to the
Women’s Fightback Network’s petition, which calls for the governor
to declare an Economic State of Emergency, for a moratorium on foreclosures and
evictions, and for a restoration of utilities that have been shut off and the
prevention of further utility shut- offs. It is reported that city officials
say over 600 properties have been foreclosed this year in Boston and hundreds
more properties may be foreclosed next year.
On Oct. 18 the Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants held a rally and march in downtown
Boston demanding full funding for Section 8 and Public Housing. Three million
families in HUD-subsidized apartments face displacement if Congress does not
fully fund Section 8 and Public Housing. The National Alliance of HUD Tenants
has presented a “Save Our Homes” platform to both the Obama and
McCain campaigns, but the McCain campaign has refused to meet with the group.
The demonstration marched to McCain headquarters in Boston to press their
demands, but received no response from the McCain staffers.
The anger of poor and working people against the effects of the economic crisis
is on the rise. A tidal wave of fightback is sure to come.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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