Budget Committee releases new MA budget. Yields considerably to pro-family pressure on gay programs in schools! Required funding for "GLBT Commission" is out!
June 21, 2009
Funding for homosexual programs in the schools in next year's state Massachusetts budget has been hugely derailed by a flood of pro-family pressure -- including hundreds of faxes, emails, and phone calls -- over the last several weeks directed at the committee deciding on final budget allocations.
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Here's how the Legislature wants to spend your tax dollars. |
Late Thursday evening the six-person Joint Budget Committee of the Massachusetts Legislature released its "final" version of the 2010 state budget. On Friday the budget was passed by both houses, and it now goes to the Governor.
State Budget from conference committee (PDF file 1.7 mb)
All required funding for the "GLBT commission" -- earmarked or un-earmarked -- has been severely scaled back from last year. This represents a victory for pro-family forces over the powerful homosexual lobby, which put considerable pressure on the committee to require funding for the GLBT commission.
It wasn't complete, however. The politicians still caved in, to some extent, to the homosexual lobby. They left the door open a crack for possible future funding by (1) keeping a mention in the budget of the Mass. GLBT Commission for "possible" funding, and (2) requiring some unspecified funding for "suicide and violence prevention outreach to gay and lesbian youth."
(We're be doing research now to see where "stealth" funding might come from.)
Nevertheless, the committee clearly reacted to the outrage of citizens. Required funding for the GLBT Commission was a major budget goal of the homosexual lobby. This represents the first time that they failed to get it.
However, the fact that our politicians still include "possible" funding for the GLBT Commission, after cutting out hundreds of other programs and services in Massachusetts completely, shows that these politicians still don't get it. (See #3 below.) We still have work to do.
But had we not done this, we think there would have surely been at least a few hundred thousand dollars of required funding for the GLBT Commission, maybe more.
The three budget items -- how it looks:
Here's the difference between this past year's budget (FY 2009) and next year's budget (FY 2010 from Conference Committee) in the three budget items we were battling over:
1. Department of Education (budget item 7010-0005)
FY 2009 Budget:
... in collaboration with the commission on gay and lesbian youth established by section 67 of chapter 3 of the General Laws, shall allocate not less than $300,000 ...
FY 2010 (from Conference Committee):
... in collaboration with the commission on gay and lesbian youth established by section 67 of chapter 3 of the General Laws, may allocate funds . . .
2. Department of Public Health (budget item 2590-0250)
FY 2009 Budget:
... not less than $550,000 shall be expended for the commission on gay and lesbian youth ...
FY 2010 (from Conference Committee):
... funds may be expended for the support of the commission on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth ...
3. Department of Public Health (budget item 4513-1130)
FY 2009 Budget:
... funds shall be expended for ... statewide suicide and violence prevention outreach to gay and lesbian youth;
FY 2010 (from Conference Committee):
... funds shall be expended for statewide suicide and violence prevention outreach to gay and lesbian youth;
Of course, we wanted NO mention of the GLBT Commission at all in the state budget. We pushed hard, but the homosexual lobby was fighting hard, too. In the end, in two of the items it allows money to be spent but doesn't require it. In the third it "requires" an unspecified amount.
(That third item mandates funding for "statewide suicide and violence prevention outreach to gay and lesbian youth", which is a cynical and dishonest code-phrase for homosexual programs in the schools. A lot of politicians cowardly cave in on that without bothering to research how that money is ACTUALLY spent. Whenever we can we demand they do their homework.)
It's not 100% of what we wanted, but it certainly could have been a lot worse. We'll be watching this closely.
Arrogance at a time of budget "crisis"
As Howie Carr points out in a Boston Herald commentary the new state budget is only about 2.5% lower than last year -- about the same size as it was in 2007.
Yet the Legislature is increasing the state sales tax by 25 percent and meals taxes by 1.25 percentage points to make up for this "huge" deficit.
In addition, the Boston Globe reported that communities could see up to a 15 percent cut in local aid, and this budget would eliminate 50 line items and funding for 800 local projects. A dozen Registry of Motor Vehicle branches will also be closed. One senator told State House News that passing this budget will lead to "thousands" of public sector layoffs.
But they say there's still a possibility to fund homosexual programs in schools.
Vetoes by Governor?
The Governor has the opportunity to veto parts of the budget. Each of these three budget items have a LOT of other spending in them, and the governor's original budget recommendations were cut even more, so it's conceivable the governor could veto one of more of them. If so, we'll be there . . .
What's next? Eliminating the GLBT Commission, and more!
As you probably know, we're not stopping here by any means. Last January we filed two powerful bills to deal with this problem. Bill H145 completely eliminates the infamous Massachusetts Commission for GLBT Youth. Bill H406, known as the David Parker Parents' Rights Bill, is a tight "opt-in" bill that stops the ability of homosexual activists to get to kids in the schools. [You can see both of those bills, and more, HERE.]
Neither of those bills has had a public hearing scheduled yet. We'll keep you informed on everything.
In the meantime, parents and citizens pulled off a significant accomplishment!
