Governor signs budget, leaves LGBT funding intact

Gov. Deval Patrick vetoed $122.5 million in spending when he signed the fiscal year 2009 (FY09) budget into law July 13, but LGBT and HIV/AIDS programs survived the veto process without losing any funding. That means the FY09 includes funding increases for all of the state's LGBT programs, as well as a $725,000 increase for the Department of Public Health's (DPH) HIV/AIDS budget line item.

The only veto of a line item containing LGBT funding came in the DPH line for school based health programs, a $17 million line that contains the $550,000 in funding for DPH's LGBT youth programs. Cynthia Roy, a spokesperson for Patrick, confirmed that a veto of $390,000 from that line item would have no impact on the LGBT youth funding.

"The veto, the reduction in funding for that line item does not hit that program," said Roy.

There were no vetoes of the line items containing the state's other LGBT programs, including LGBT youth programs in the Department of Primary and Secondary Education, LGBT domestic violence programs, and the LGBT Aging Project.