Down to the Bone: Senators Struggle with Budget

The Senate Finance Committee has thoroughly combed through the budget looking for savings.

A reasonable response when you are trying to address a half a billion dollar shortfall.

The funding hole is so big Democrats- who as the majority are making most of the big decisions- have proposed cuts to their own sacred cows.

Money for art teachers, open space and rental assistance for the poor has either been cut or at least called into question.

It was clear just how low Senate Democrats felt they had to go when lawmakers began to debate the value of the Commission on the Status of Women.

TAPE: Amendment 1944S repeals the Commission on the Status of Men and the Commission on the Status of Women.

Democratic Senator Lou D’Allesandro, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, told colleagues the state could find much better ways to use the some $300,000 dollars that is allocated to the Women’s Commission.

Especially, he added, given that there are nearly half a dozen other groups in the state looking out for women’s interests.

TAPE: the Women’s Lobby. The Women’s Fund, The Women’s Policy Center, the Woman Business Center.

TAPE: As much as I applaud...appreciate all of the contributions, I don’t believe the work of the Commission on the Status of Women is done.

Senate President Sylvia Larsen- a Democrat from Concord- responded that women in the state still haven’t achieved equal pay for equal work.

In defense, she lauded the Commission for its work with the Goffstown Prison.

TAPE: they called to light the absolute lack of programming in the Women’s Prison...it is through that kind of highlighting that we gain insights into the changes we need to make in our state.

TAPE: I don’t think this has anything to do with the fact that there is not value from this organization, and it’s served the state well.

Democratic Senator Kathy Sgambati said she doesn’t like cutting funding for the Commission anymore than Senator Larsen.

But she said given the Recession, lawmakers don’t have the luxury to fund valuable programs.

Lawmakers, she said, must first fund programs that support the basics, like life and death.

TAPE: what is the most vital service? What is the most essential needs of the people of our state at a moment when the economy is down, jobs are hard to find and people are suffering.

Democrats in the Senate, and at least the two Republicans on the Finance Committee, essentially agree with Sgambati that so-called ‘vital services’ trump other programs, no matter how cherished.

Sgambati says she practiced what she preached.

After the Senate received the budget from the House, she had to find $130 million dollars in savings in the Health and Human Services portion of the budget.

Sgambati managed to cut $100 million dollars including money for domestic violence victims, drug addicts and those with developmental disabilities.

After trimming or eliminating items like money for poor people with catastrophic illness and domestic violence victims, Sgambati led the charge to make sure other Senators also prioritized appropriately.

And indeed, Senate Finance has recommended cuts to the Commission on the Status of Women, the Bureau of Cultural Resources and the popular preservation program known as LCHIP.

But Democrat, Senator Harold Janeway said when times are hard, it’s important to offer the public recreational opportunities.

TAPE: it’s almost as saying that we aren’t going to have any art or any music until we get through this hard time. that doesn’t help get through the hard time. I think it can help.

To Senator Sylvia Larsen, pitting programs that help women in prison against those with developmental disabilities just goes to show how lean the budget is.

A common phrase heard in Concord around budget time is that lawmakers are ‘cutting down to the bone.’

Larsen says given the severity of the shortfall the bone expression doesn’t apply.

TAPE: we are into the organs, not the bone, the soft fleshy organs of what the state should be supporting and we are not currently right now funding those at the level we should be.

Ultimately money from gambling and a business tax, allowed the Senate Finance Committee to restore funding for some HHS services.

But there’s no guarantee the Committee’s work will pass the full Senate, let alone the House.

That means programs that serve some of the state’s most vulnerable and programs that provide people with a more well-rounded life could quickly be back on the chop block.

The situation left one statehouse observer asking rhetorically when lawmakers cut core functions, when is it no longer a responsible budget.

For NHPR News, I’m DG.