Social agency leaders warn of serious cuts

A food bank director said they're in 'the fight of our life.'
YOUNGSTOWN -- Human service providers were warned Friday to lobby the governor and other state officials to maintain state funding for their agencies or risk loss of programs because of the state fiscal crisis.
"We can't have our state budget balanced on the backs of our working families and their children," Lisa Hamler-Podolski, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Banks, said. "We face a challenge in the upcoming budget session. The public and private sectors have to work together."
Hamler-Podolski spoke at meeting in the Second Harvest Food Bank, on Salt Springs Road, attended by about 40 social service agency leaders. They represented food banks, homeless shelters, faith-based initiatives, government agencies and other such providers.
David A. Ellis, director of policy, planning and programs at the Center for Community Solutions in Cleveland, said the state faces a large deficit in its upcoming two-year budget, if current spending and taxing policies remain in place. The budget, to provide for the next two fiscal years, will be put together by early February by Gov. Robert Taft.
Though state tax revenue is projected to increase by $700 million for the next two fiscal years, the state faces a rise of $1.3 billion in new spending, including $940 million to maintain primary and secondary education, health care for the poor and other services, he said.
Impact
As a result, services to the disadvantaged might be curtailed or cut to compensate for overall increase in the budget, he warned.
At the same time, Ellis said Secretary of the State Kenneth Blackwell, honorary chairman of the Citizens for Tax Repeal, will campaign for passage of a measure to cap tax increases and curtail spending, similar to ones passed in Colorado, Massachusetts and California. Blackwell's proposed measure may be on next November's election ballot.
Such a cap could cause serious curtailment of social services, Ellis said.
Hamler-Podolski said the advocates for curtailing taxes and cutting social programs are just as organized and determined as agencies who want to maintain services.
"We are in the fight of our life in this one," she said. "It's going to be tough."