Romney cuts state budget on the backs of the poor

Dan Devine

Advocates for low-income Massachusetts residents have looked very closely at Governor Mitt Romney’s recent budget vetoes, and they don’t like what they see.

On July 8, Romney signed the state’s 2007 fiscal year budget. While the $25.249 billion budget represents a 5.6 percent increase from the previous fiscal year, specifically in areas such as education, local aid and the environment, Romney vetoed $573 million in spending, the most in his four years in office, with many of the cuts impacting citizens directly dependent upon state-funded programs.

Headlining the reductions for at-risk residents, Romney vetoed $3 million in emergency food assistance to the poor, which he called “excessive,” $114 million to three Boston-area hospitals, and $5 million of a proposed $10 million increase in Medicaid assistance for community health centers.

Romney also cut $1 million in grants for the Head Start program, $1.3 million for childcare, and $1 million for METCO, the 40 year old program that provides minority students an opportunity for racially integrated public school education by placing them in suburban schools.

METCO executive director Dr. Jean McGuire said her organization was “extremely disappointed” that the governor failed to support what she called “a fully justifiable increase in spending.”

“The governor loves to promote his work in providing students scholarships for in-state tuition.  But if you don’t support kids in the pipeline with quality early childcare like Head Start, which is a proven entity, and then you cut emergency aid and food for the poor because that’s ‘excessive,’ then that’s talking out of both sides of your mouth. That’s being a liar,” McGuire said in an interview.

Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless executive director Robyn Frost is also troubled by Romney’s doublespeak, particularly after his veto eliminated $5 million in funding for the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) program, which moves homeless families out of shelters and into affordable housing, and $27.4 million for the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP), a state rent assistance program for low-income residents.

“I think it’s ironic that a governor who, on his first day after assuming the office, threw down the gauntlet of saying he was going to end homelessness later turns around and vetoes spending for a program like RAFT that makes it so families will never again have to step through the front door of an emergency shelter,” Frost said. “I think it’s ironic that a governor who talks about wanting to solve homelessness vetoes the MRVP program, making it harder for low-income families to access affordable housing.”

“It just seems that all of his vetoes in the case of low-income people and housing make it harder for homelessness to ever be solved.”

Robert Coard, president and CEO of Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD), called Romney’s veto “… a direct and insensitive hit on poor people — particularly children, homeless families and working people — who are already struggling to survive in our cities, towns and rural areas.”

In a statement, Coard criticized “unconscionable” cuts in state funding for child care resource and referral agencies that issue child care vouchers enabling low-income parents to seek employment, independent living programs that help disabled persons function in society and AIDS prevention and early intervention health care programs.

The ABCD president found the veto of Head Start support particularly troubling in light of recent federal cutbacks and the program’s history of funding woes.

“Head Start was just hit with a 1 percent Bush administration across-the-board federal cut,” Coard said. “It serves the most vulnerable infants, children and families in the state who need all the help we can provide.

“After 13 years of raw neglect, the state’s Head Start supplement is finally being raised by a legislature that cares about our children and families — only to be vetoed by this governor.”

Frederica Williams, president and CEO of Whittier Street Health Center, called the elimination of $5 million in proposed Medicaid rate increase assistance problematic due to the rising cost of providing care.

“Two studies have been done that show that the state is paying 15 percent less than the full cost of Medicaid for patients, and a significant number of our patients — 60 percent — are Medicaid patients,” Williams said. “So when only 85 percent of your cost is paid for, and we’re already a low-cost provider offering care to people with low income, there’s always going to be a gap.”

Dimock Community Health Center president and CEO Ruth Ellen Fitch echoed Williams’ concerns.

“The cuts really will affect our ability to serve all of our patients and clients. Unfortunately, we need to be able to count on a budget and staff that will meet the needs of our patients, and without the allocations in the budget, we can’t meet those needs,” Fitch said.

While disappointed that the proposed increase was halved, Williams is still happy to be getting anything.

“The full $10 million would have brought us to the level of our cost, but at least there’s still $5 million, leaving a gap of only 7.5 percent. We’re grateful to at least get some cost relief, but it’s not all there,” Williams said.

The advocates all seem confident that the state legislature will override Romney’s vetoes and restore the funding the governor cut.

“Our legislators have their heads around the fact that these programs are critical,” said Frost.

“There was bipartisan support for [the allocation], and I’m trusting that the legislature will use its good sense and look out for the people of the Commonwealth. I mean, we do pay taxes,” said McGuire.