Advocates aim high in Senate budget lobbying

Following modest funding increases for LGBT and HIV/AIDS programs in the House budget for the next fiscal year, advocates are pushing the Senate to approve much larger increases in its budget plan.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee is expected to release its budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09) on May 14. The full Senate will begin debate on it the following week. Once the Senate approves its budget the House and Senate will come together in a conference committee to reconcile their two proposals.

Sen. Ed Augustus (D-Worcester), a member of the Ways and Means Committee who has championed the push for increased funds for LGBT domestic violence programs, said that he expects the Senate budget to contain increases for LGBT and HIV/AIDS programs similar in magnitude to those found in the House budget.

"I think we're going to be somewhere in that general range, I'm hoping maybe a little bit higher," said Augustus.

While he is pushing for an increase for LGBT domestic violence programs from the $250,000 they currently receive to $658,000, he said that given the state's difficult fiscal situation he thinks the Senate will likely increase the budget by about $100,000, as the House did last week.

"It's a difficult budget environment but I think it's a reflection of the importance of the GLBT line items that they are seeing increases while other areas of the budget are not seeing increases. It's just a matter of how much we can increase them by," said Augustus.

Matt McTighe, political director for MassEquality, said despite the tough fiscal climate advocates have spent the last couple of months pushing senators to approve major increases to LGBT and HIV/AIDS budget items, including increasing LGBT youth programs from $550,000 to $2.9 million; HIV/AIDS program funding from $36.9 million to $42.9 million; funding for the LGBT Aging Project from $60,000 to $125,000; and the aforementioned increase for LGBT domestic violence programs.

"The reason we're keeping our requests the same is they're right from the start," said McTighe. He said MassEquality has had several meetings with Senate Ways and Means chairman Sen. Steven Panagiotakos (D-Lowell) to push for those increases, and on May 4 MassEquality arranged for Panagiotakos to meet with constituents in his district who also urged him to make the increases. McTighe declined to discuss the substance of the conversations with Panagiotakos.

Mary Ann Hart, lobbyist for Project ABLE (AIDS Budget Legislative Effort), a coalition of state HIV/AIDS organizations, said Sen. Dianne Wilkerson (D-Boston), a member of Ways and Means, is serving as the champion for HIV/AIDS funding. Hart said Project ABLE's energy is focused on getting an increase into the Ways and Means budget before the amendment process.

"Typically [the Senate approves] very few amendments that add money to the budget. They're even more difficult than the House," said Hart.

Eleni Carr, government relations chair for the Massachusetts Commission on GLBT Youth, said the commission will reach out to senators and explain why they believe the state should commit $2.9 million to LGBT youth programs. But she said ultimately they will leave it to the Senate to decide what they think is an appropriate figure.

"The target goal is to make sure that we do our jobs to best educate the Senate, as we attempted to do with the House, to let them know what is the status of things with GLBT youth in the Commonwealth, and based on that really having them come up with their best case scenario. I won't actually give you a figure that we're targeting or hoping for because the role is to educate and give them the lay of the land," said Carr.

The House approved a $200,000 increase for LGBT youth programs last week. While that number fell short of the commission's goal, Carr credited the coalition of lawmakers and advocates who lobbied on behalf of the funding for winning that increase in a tight budget year.

"In terms of educating the senators and the House reps, this year we had 52 co-sponsors out of the House. We've never had that kind of representation in the past," said Carr. "This felt like a solid number, over a third of reps in the house, and we're very pleased to get that kind of sponsorship for LGBT youth. I would say a lot of credit goes to Rep. [Carl] Sciortino and Rep. [Alice] Wolf in Cambridge, and I would say the [Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political] Caucus and MassEquality as well for really helping in the effort. It truly feels like we're all working together. Any gains realized will be the result of this collaboration, along with the senators who join the cause."