Women & Children First – Not Women & Children Overboard!

By:  Heather Arnet, CEO, Women and Girls Foundation

This week the PA State Legislature and Governor Corbett are hoping to finalize the 2011/2012 State Budget. It is sad to see that despite having received an extra HALF BILLION dollars in unexpected revenue, that the Legislature and Governor have decided to save these monies for a “rainy day fund” and instead make drastic cuts now on everything from child care, health care, and nutrition for the elderly, to education and housing assistance for the working poor, and job training for the unemployed. In the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression, why can our legislators not see, as the Greater Pittsburgh Non-Profit Partnership (GPNP) has so brilliantly said, that it is “pouring down rain” on our state’s most vulnerable right now? In fact these days it feels like we are in a torrential economic storm, the flood damage of which will be felt for generations. When families and communities are struggling so desperately (with unemployment for African Americans and Single Female Heads of Household at nearly 15%) it seems a complete mystery why our state legislators, elected to represent the people’s interest, are more interested in protecting out of state tax gas driller’s revenues than they are in making strategic investments in workforce development training, job creation, and education for our state’s future generation of workers. This bill will be voted on this week, so it is not too late to write or call your representatives and state senators to tell them that you disagree with the priorities of their budget. Here is a link to help you find contact info for your legislators http://tinyurl.com/44e8esp and below is more detailed information on what is in the proposed budget.

Here are some highlights from the budget being negotiated right now by Gov. Corbett and Legislature Leadership, as provided to us by GPNP:

• Cutting Community Based Family Centers by 50%.
• Leveling funds for Nurse Family Partnerships
• Drastic reductions to Accountability Block Grants – which are often used to support full day kindergarten programs.
• A $2.456 million cut to Pre-K Counts and $1.1 million for the Head Start Supplemental Assistance;
• Cuts a half million for the State Food Purchase
• Consolidates the Commission for Women, Latino Affairs Commission, African-American Affairs Commission and Asian-American Affairs Commission into a joint Office of Public Liaison.
• Eliminates $17.8 million in funding for Housing and Redevelopment Assistance;
• Reduces from $10.4 million to $2 million funding for the Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (HEMAP) and reduces by $2.2 million funding for Homeless Assistance;
• Includes a 1-percent reduction for Rape Crisis and Domestic Violence Services;
• Cuts funding for child care services ($17.4 million), child care assistance ($17.6 million) and raises co-pays for child care for low-income families at a time when about 9,000 children are awaiting connection to a child care subsidy;
• County child welfare is slated to serve abused and neglected children and youths with $45 million fewer dollars.
• Includes an $8.5 million cut to Human Services Development Fund

This job-cutting budget will throw Pennsylvania families even further into debt and poverty and then – as these families find themselves in a free fall – they will also find that there is no longer any safety net. This budget cuts nutritional aide for infants, housing assistance for our elderly and veterans, early childhood education, community and family health care centers, and environmental protection of our water and the air we breathe. Some of these programs were enacted under past Republican Governors and have long had bi-partisan support. And, it does so while leaving billions of dollars in a “rainy day” fund and while providing subsidies and tax breaks for billionaire corporations and natural gas drillers.

The phrase women and children first, used to mean, in an emergency these groups should be the ones first given the lifeboats to safety. It did not mean, in a crisis, throw the women and children overboard. But, that is exactly what this budget does. It makes the most vulnerable in our community bear the brunt of the sacrifice. And why? Our state is not even currently in a deficit situation. We have billions of dollars now in surplus from the last fiscal year, due to unexpected revenue. Even if the Legislature and Governor did not want to create new revenues by taxing natural gas drillers, they could just tap into this surplus reserve to help families in Pennsylvania now when we need it the most.

The recession had a devastating impact on millions of Americans, especially women raising young children on their own. In 2009, single female headed households with children made up 74% of those living in poverty in Pittsburgh and 68% of households living in poverty in across the state of PA. Unemployment rates for single mothers have doubled since 2007 and are TWICE that of their married male counterparts.

These budget cuts will not only result in decreased social services for the poor. They also will cut thousands of jobs. Jobs in the health care, education, and child care sectors. The majority of which are held by women, many of them raising children on their own. The National Women’s Law Center, recently reported that women lost 86 % of the jobs cut in the government sector during 2010. And so, if these cuts are approved by the legislature not only will the women and children currently served by these programs suffer, but more families will be moved from economic self-sufficiency to unemployment and poverty.

This is not a job-creation strategy. This is not an economic recovery strategy. This is an attack on society’s most vulnerable. Pennsylvanians need to become informed as to the local impact this job-cutting bill will have on our local economy and local working families. And, we must speak out against the passage of this budget. The Governor and the Legislature can be fiscally prudent without being cruel.

We urge our state legislatures and the Governor’s administration to consider how all state programs are investments of taxpayer resources and as such we should invest these dollars with an eye towards maximum return on investment. Cutting early child care education, food programs for poor children, and health care and educational programs for their mothers may result in short-term gains, but all of the data demonstrates that these cuts will also result in significant long-term losses to the state and our community. Children who benefit from these programs are much less likely to end up living in prisons as adults and much more likely to be gainfully employed … and so are their mothers.

Please contact your legislators this week http://tinyurl.com/44e8esp and encourage them to make strategic investments in job creation and education to build up the economic stability of Pennsylvania families. This should be the future that we are all working towards.

Heather Arnet is the Chief Executive Officer of The Women and Girls Foundation and can be reached at heather@wgfpa.org.