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November 11, 2004

Local activists see hard times as Bush prepares for 2nd term

Yawu Miller

While President George Bush last week hailed his election victory as an endorsement of his conservative agenda, activists in Boston's black community are bracing for four more years of cuts in federal funding.

Meeting at the offices of Associated Grantmakers, executive directors of several community nonprofits discussed the future with US Rep. Barney Frank, who gave a fairly grim assessment.

“At this point, we know they’re going to do bad things,” he told the gathering, which was sponsored by the Union of Minority Neighborhoods. “We have to make it clear to people that this is what’s going to happen.”

Frank said working class Americans can expect to see their wages stagnate and their tax burden increase as Bush moves to consolidate tax cuts for the wealthiest earners and continues to drive up the budget deficit.

In areas of public housing, law enforcement, education and job training, Boston and other major cities in the United States have long depended on funding from the federal government. While the military budget has been consuming a larger portion of US tax dollars, funding for other areas declined under the first four years of the Bush administration.

While Bush has offered little insight on what his administration is planning for the next four years, Boston Housing Authority Director Sandra Henriquez is not hopeful.

“I’m praying it’s not more of the same,” she said. “I’m hoping the president will think about his legacy and that part of his legacy will be helping and supporting the most vulnerable members of society.”

HUD’s budget suffered from significant cuts under the Clinton administration. The Bush administration has gone further, cutting budgets for operations and maintenance at public housing developments as well as cutting the Section 8 program, which provides subsidies for low-income renters.

Henriquez said housing authorities cannot afford to absorb more cuts.

“We won’t survive if it’s more of the same,” she said.

In the nonprofit sector, many community-based service providers have felt the pinch as government funding for job training, summer jobs and other programs has dried up under the first Bush administration.

“As the government cuts back, it usually means a decrease in funding for human services,” said Ron Ancrum, executive director of Associated Grantmakers. “It forces organizations to depend more on charitable dollars.”

The nonprofit sector’s increased reliance on foundations has had a domino effect in the philanthropic world, forcing more and more agencies to compete for a limited pool of funds.

“The number of requests foundations are receiving has gone way up,” he said. “At the same time, foundation assets have decreased.”

Community Development Corporations, which have produced the bulk of the new affordable housing in the city over the last 20 years, may face a particularly difficult task in building new housing. Not only has foundation money become more scarce, but the project-based Section 8 funds that they have depended on for subsidies has also been cut during the first four years of the Bush administration.

“The cost of construction and the cost of land is so high, to reach the people we want to reach you need a program like Section 8,” said Joseph Kriesberg, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations.

At the same time, the Bush administration has cut other federal initiatives CDCs have relied on, including the Small Business Association’s micro-lending program which helps small business owners.

“These programs have been hit very hard by this administration, and there’s no indication that that won’t continue,” Kriesberg said, noting that Congress narrowly blocked Bush from eliminating the micro-lending program. “Over the next four years, they could whittle that program down to nothing.”

In education, John Mudd, senior project director for Mass Advocates for Children, says Bush will likely continue putting higher demands on public schools while offering less funding.

“The demands on the budget will be even greater,” he said. “And he’s got this huge budget deficit which he plans to do nothing about. He will add $1 to $2 trillion to the budget deficit. He’s going to make the tax cuts for the rich permanent. We’re going to have an extension of what we had before, only a little bit worse.”

State Rep. Gloria Fox, interviewed after attending the first meeting of the state’s newly-minted Health Care Disparities Commission said the prospects for federal funding of health care initiatives is grim.

“Their emphasis is moving away from prevention,” she said of the Bush administration. “They’re de-emphasizing the needs of black folk.”

But Fox said people of color in Boston and across the nation should use the Bush victory as a rallying cry to organize.

“You have to deal with the realities you’re faced with, but at the same time, there are groups all over the country that are working on how to prioritize our mission,” she said. “For that reason, I remain hopeful. I’m going to stay focused on the needs of the people in my district — and they’re not different from the needs of most of the people in the country.”

 

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