Not because they wanted to, but because they were forced to. Not that their decision making process was bad, they just had all horrible choices. They clearly disagreed with making any cuts and felt that these are basic services that should not be cut in this economy – which they clearly expressed to the Mayor in a letter and at a meeting and reiterated throughout the meeting.
As a result of being forced to make these horrible decisions, this morning a few non-profit Executive Directors, and more importantly, the clients they serve are waking up to some nasty surprises. While they went to bed thinking they would get the funding that they were granted as a result of the application process last summer, instead they got recommendations that will go to the Mayor to give them 4 – 11% decreases in that funding.
This post is long because I included details of what changed, so you may want to skip down past that to read about the issues involved.
WHO GOT CUT & HOW MUCH/WHAT CHANGED
Here’s a list of agencies and I think, the cuts they are now facing after the decision was made around 10:00 last night after a 4 hour meeting:
Program Area 7 – Neighborhood Organizing and Capacity Building
East Isthmus Neighborhood Planning Council – 6% cut
Northside Planning Council – 6% cut
South Metropolitan Planning Council – 6% cut
Grassroots Leadership College, Intensive Workshops – 6% cut
Neighborhood House, Connection Newsletter – 6% cutProgram Area 2 – Support to Families
Bridge/Lake Point/Waunona Neighborhood Center – Los Ninos Primeros – 4% cut
Canopy Center – Stress Line, Outreach, Education – 4% cut
Family Enhancement – Parent’s Places and Early Childhood Center – 4% cut
Literacy Network – Family First – 4% cut
Respite Center – Crisis Child Care – 4% cut
Urban League – Fatherhood Responsibility – 4% cut
YWCA – Third Street – 4% cutProgram Area 5 – Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
Rape Crisis Center – Crisis Line – 4% cut
DAIS – Shelter Support & Outreach and Education – 6.3% cut
Freedom Inc – Family Strengthening Program – 6.3% cut
Rape Crisis Center – Crisis Intervention/Short term counseling – 6.3% cutProgram Area 6 – Community Assistance/Access
Allied Wellness Center – 4% cut
ARC Community Center – RESPECT – 4% cut
Bridget/LakePoint/Waunona Neighborhood Center – Latino Family Resource Project – 4% cut
Centro Hispano – 4% cut
Kennedy Heights – Asian Outreach – 4% cut
Lussier Community Education Center – Support Outreach Leadership – 4% cut
Lutheran Social Services – Off the Square Club – 4% cut
Outreach – 4% cut
Porchlight – Transit for Jobs – 4% cut
Tenant Resource Center – Housing Counseling Outreach and Education – 4% cut
UMOS – Community Assistance – 4% cut
Vera Court – Latino Resource Center – 4% cut
YWCA – Day Transit Services – 4% cut
The agencies that got “good news”/less severe cuts as a result, I think, are as follows:
Program Area 7 – Neighborhood Organizing and Capacity Building
Boys and Girls Club – Allied core services (cuts reduced to 6%)
Boys and Girls Club – South core services (cuts reduced to 6%)
Vera Court Neighborhood Center core services (cuts reduced to 6%)
Wilmar Neighborhood Center core services (cuts reduced to 6%)Program Area 2 – Support to Families
Canopy Center – Family United Network (larger cuts reduced to 9.3 – 9.4% cut)
DAIS – Children of Violent Homes/Children Services (larger cuts reduced to 9.3 – 9.4% cut)
Family Service – Children from Violent Homes (larger cuts reduced to 9.3 – 9.4% cut)
Rainbow Project – Early Intervention & Children of Violent Homes (larger cuts reduced to 9.3 – 9.4% cut)
Youth Services of Centeral Wisconsin – Children of Violent Homes (larger cuts reduced to 9.3 – 9.4% cut)Program Area 5 – Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault
Rape Crisis Center – Community Education – (larger cuts reduced to 6.3% cut)
YWCA – Transit Night Ride – (larger cuts reduced to 6.3% cut)Program Area 6 – Community Assistance/Access
Omega School – GED/Basic Skills (larger cuts reduced to 10.8%)
MAP (larger cuts reduced to 10.8%)
TJ Brokerage VITA site (larger cuts reduced to 10.8%)
I say, “I think” because there are no final numbers yet. Originally, these were the recommendations. Program Area 1 & 3, and I believe 4, stayed as originally recommended – programs cut there listed below.
That’s not really all the bad news, as these are the other programs that were cut as recommended:
Program Area 1 – Child Care
4C’s Data Program
Satellite Family Child Care
Bayview Foundation After School Program & Summer Program
Bridge/lakepoint/Waunona Childrens Program
Dane County Parent Council – PEP, Wee Start and Great Beginnings
East Madison Community Center – Children Services & Summer Program
Goodman Community Center – Childrens Programs, Learning Center & Preschool Program
Kennedy Heights – Children Program and Early Childhood
Lussier Community Education Center – Afterschool and Summer programs
Neighborhood House – Summer Day Camp
Vera Court – Children’s program and Life as a Boy
Wilmar – Summer Camp
Wisconsin Youth Company – After school and summer programs
YWCA Children’s Programs
4Cs Training & Latino Projects
Rainbow Pride programProgram Area 3 – Senior Services
East Madison/Monona Coalition of Aging – Focal Point Based Community Assistance
North/Eastside Senior Coalition – Focal Point Based Community Assistance
South Madison Coalition of Elderly – Focal Point Based Community Assistance
West Madison Senior Coalition – Focal Point Based Community Assistance
Goodman Community Center Senior Activities
Neighborhood House Senior Activities
North/Eastside Senior Coalition Senior Activities
RSVP – Community Services
South Madison Coalition of the Elderly – Neighborhood Senior Center Services
United Asian Services Senior Services
West Madison Senior Coalition – Senior Activities
Wilmar Senior Services
Program Area 4 – Youth Services
Bayview – After School programs, Teen Night and Summer Recreation Program
Big Brothers/Big Sisters – Elver Park Outreach
Boys and Girls Club – High School Summer and School Year Programs
Bridge/Lakepoint/Waunona – Teen Programs and Girl Neighborhood Power
Centro Hispano – Juventud and Juventud MAS
Commonwealth – Youth Business Mentoring
East Madison Community Services – Summer/youth programs and youth services
Family Services – Bridges
Freedom Inc – Girls in Action
Girl Scouts
Goodman Community Center – Middle School, High School & Teen programs, Girls Inc
Kennedy Heights – Girl Inc and teen programs
Lussier Community Education Center – Jefferson Youth Resource Center and Project Teen Build Up
Neighborhood House – Youth Development
Simpson Street Free Press & Summer writing program
Urban League – Schools of Hope
Vera Court – Youth Programs, Girl Neighborhood Power, Youth Leadership and RISE
Wilmar – Soar
Wisconsin Youth Company – Middle and High School After School and Summer programs
Youth Services of Southern Wisconsin – Runaway and Homeless Services, Youth Groups and Youth Work Crew (Allied)
YWCA – Girl Neighborhood Power
The only groups/programs that escaped funding cuts were as follows:
Program Area 4 – Seniors
East Madison/Monona Coalition of Aging – Case Management & Outreach
North/Eastside Senior Coalition – Case Management & Outreach
South Madison Coalition of Elderly – Case Management & Outreach
West Madison Senior Coalition – Case Management & Outreach plus Home Chore
WHAT WAS DISCUSSED
These changes were the result of a 4 hour meeting last night where they heard powerful testimony from several of the agencies that would have had up to 21% cuts. The testimony was filled with heartfelt sentiments, some tears and at points was just agonizing. Discussion at the commission was mostly about the process, the pros and cons (ok, mostly cons) of across the board cuts, discussion of the Mayor’s priorities and what that means to their process and a continued reiteration of the fact that they believe no cuts should be made.
THERE SHOULD BE NO CUTS
With the economy in the shape it is in, longer waiting lists and more families in more severe crisis as a result, these cuts just seemed cruel. And the real shame here is that so many of these programs help strengthen people and families to PREVENT further costs to the community in the future. A child helped at the age of 2 or 5 or 13, may be the difference between being a productive member of society and someone who ends up in the correctional system or continues the cycle of violence. A GED can mean college instead of the correctional system. Some of these services are critical to preventing violence and sexual assault. They felt that these should be basic services like police and streets and pointed out that what is done here, prevents the need for more police services and that even Chief Wray realizes that the police cannot do this alone and they need these services. They made it clear that they would recommend no changes and have told the mayor that. In fact, many think that there should be increases in this funding. Early Childhood Care and Education Committee said that all these programs are essential to the infrastructure that is fragile and said that every cut we make today has implications for tomorrow. People who were there to speak widely acknowledged that this was not the commission’s choice and that they realized they were in a very difficult spot.
ACROSS THE BOARD CUTS VS SETTING PRIORITIES
There was widespread agreement that the death of a thousand cuts has been going on for the past 10 years. That many agencies are going backwards in their support as flat funding and small cuts are more common than modest increases and they have the net affect of not keeping up to rising personnel and health care costs – as well as rent, costs of supplies and general costs to operate a program. All this, while the population that needs services is growing and there are new challenges. And as a result, agencies have more turn over due to uncertain funding, the hard work that has to be done and the relatively low pay. One speaker said it felt like we were in the middle of a of a western movie. He said it feels like someone has a gun and is telling us to dance and every time we gain our footing, someone shoots again and eventually we’re going to be lying there bleeding.
The discussion was about if some agencies that were lower priorities should have bigger cuts. But the problem is that the lower priority programs just don’t get funded in the first place and have been cut in the past and they are at the point where there are no lower priority groups and some disagreed about who was where on the list. In the end, the cuts reflected above tried to give smaller cuts to the higher priority groups and larger, but not drastic cuts to the lower priority groups that so clearly important to the community. They struggled quite a bit to get to the end results, many motions failed, minds were changed and everyone felt horrible after the meeting. If I have time, I’ll get the gory details typed up along with the public testimony.
THE MAYOR’S PRIORITIES
Apparently the Mayor wanted to prioritize programs that address youth violence. There was quite a bit of discussion about what that meant. The Mayor apparently was very blunt about this, was quoting statistics and said he thought long and hard about how this needed to be a priority. But then staff said that he had just gotten out of a briefing and that he wasn’t instructing the group to change their priorities and that he was merely looking for ideas. There was some disagreement about what the mayor might have wanted them to do and meant. There was also concern that they not get whipped around by the latest political whim or public relations crusade and that they had set priorities approved by the council.
THE PROCESS
There was some concern that some of the groups who expected not to have cuts recommended did not show up last night. They were working under a very tight timeline. They had less than a month for three commissions to meet, make recommendations, let the agencies know and have a public hearing for them to comment.
July 13 – Mayor’s Budget Message announcement re: 2010 Operating Budget
July 15 – Community Services Committee (CSC)met to make recommendations for continuing funding of all currently funded programs and/or identify exceptions and publish Preliminary Recommendations to POS agencies within 2 business days
July 15 – Early Childhood Care and Education Committee (ECCEC) met to finalize preliminary funding recommendations and publish to POS agencies within 2 business days
July 15 – Senior Citizens Advisory Committee (SCAC) met to recommend continuing funding of all currently funded programs and/or identify exceptions and review and/or prioritize supplemental requests and publish Preliminary Recommendations to POS agencies within 2 business days
July 22 – Early Childhood Care and Education Committee holds public hearing on preliminary recommendations followed by meeting to finalize recommendations
July 29 – Public Hearing on ECCEC, SCAC and CSC preliminary recommendations followed by CSC meeting to finalize recommendations
August 7 – CSC budget recommendations to Mayor
Commissioners struggled with cutting agencies that didn’t show up to speak, but also recognized that they had a public hearing and to listen and then not make decisions based on what they heard didn’t make sense. Otherwise, why did they hold the hearing?
WHY NOT MY TYPICAL RECAP
There’s alot of information in this post, and the meeting was four hours long. They talked about many complex issues and its all very hard to summarize. A play by play of this meeting would have been a bit painful to read through, tho I do want to get the public testimony and details of who led on what up so people can read about what commissioners were in favor of what types of cuts.
However, I’m conflicted, as I feel like some people get tagged as whiners because they show up and advocate for their agencies every year, because every year they are recommended to get cut. If you’ve been to these meetings, you could name 6 Executive Directors and lead staff in the room at the end of the meeting. Meanwhile, other agencies just sit back (for various reasons) and reap the rewards of that continued advocacy. Plus I want people to feel like they can show up and tell the commission what they think and then not get penalized by the politicians, so I’m torn about posting more details and I’d like to encourage more non-profit staff and boards to come forward and join in the fight to save the programs that help the people that are struggling so much in our community and that they pour their blood, sweat and tears into every day.
WHATS NEXT
The Mayor is holding public hearings, at a location to be disclosed at some point. Those hearings are
– August 5th 6:00
– August 11th 6:00
– August 17th 6:00
More to come . . . tonight, the Community Develpment Block Grant Committee gets to do through the same painful process.
