Proposed federal budget may strike local service agencies
By Shayndi Raice
The Jewish Advocate
Local leaders called a new proposal "dreadful" this week upon the release of President George W. Bush's proposed Fiscal Year 2007 budget of Feb. 6 predicting significant impediments to many social programs assisting seniors, people with disabilities and the unemployed.
While Jewish groups are still unsure of the specific ways in which they will be affected, the overall reaction has been negative. While Brad Kramer, the legislative coordinator for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, said that it's too early to tell exactly how JCRC agencies will be affected, he said that "We do know that the people they serve are going to be harmed. In many cases, it will be seniors, people with disabilities and people without health insurance."
Kramer said that while the Jewish social service agencies had not anticipated that they would be pleased with the proposed budget, the significant cuts are beyond what many had expected. "People were not necessarily optimistic, but the cuts exceeded a lot of observers expectations and it looks like much more aggressive proposed cuts to social services than I think anyone even anticipated," Kramer said.
Bush has proposed cutting $182 billion in spending over a five-year period, with much of the $2.77 trillion overall request including more federal dollars for defense and homeland security. The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism came out with a statement against the proposed budget, stating that "We well understand that spending to keep America safe and secure must be the President's first priority. But combating terrorism and paying for the war in Iraq cannot be the only priorities. We must invest in our people as well."
Sheila Decter, executive director of the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, said that she strongly disapproved of the proposed cuts for social services in favor of more federal spending on the military. "It's a dreadful act, because the money for the military, the war in Iraq and counterterrorism is way up," said Decter. "If you put that together with the tax cuts, they needed to take it from somewhere, and they have taken huge amounts from human services."
Significant cuts are being proposed for senior care, which will include a reduction in real spending on Medicare, Medicaid, affordable housing and research. Len Fishman, president and CEO of Hebrew SeniorLife, the state's largest provider of senior health care services, called the proposed budget an "an assault on the federal safety net, especially as it applies to seniors."
Fishman said that the decreased federal spending will put pressure on the states to cope with inadequate funds, especially regarding Medicaid, which is sponsored by the federal government and the state. He urged members of the community to make Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, aware of the negative impact of the cuts so that he can lobby the Bush administration to salvage funds for social services.
Fishman was especially concerned with cuts for senior research; his organization conducts research on Alzheimer's, osteoporosis and nutrition. "We run risk of giving up America's premier position as the greatest resource for research in the world," he said.
Ellen Feingold, president of Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly, called the proposed budget "a catastrophe. Many of us in the Jewish social service world are really doing our work out of a belief in Jewish values and social justice," she said. "This budget says that far fewer resources are going to be allocated to America's poorest and frailest, including the very frail elderly, and it cuts to the heart of what Jewish communal agencies are trying to do."
JCHE recently received a federal grant to build Shulman House in Framingham, a low-income housing unit for seniors. Because the grant comes from the 2005 budget, Feingold said her organization will not be directly affected. However, she pointed out that had JCHE applied for a federal grant this year, there would be no room for projects such as her own.
In addition to JCHE, other local Jewish social service agencies that will likely take a hit are Jewish Family and Children Service and Jewish Vocational Service.
Feingold also expressed concern that the proposed budget, with its significant decreases for social service organizations, might force Jewish organizations to fight with each other for meager federal funds. "One of my biggest fears is that this budget will cause those of us who are working in the field to be fighting among ourselves for peanuts," she said. "What we really have to do is band together and try to across the board create a reasonable budget that supports America's frailest."
