|
|
|
State Politics
Good news, at least for now: That atrocious Right-to-Know bill the state Senate passed on Tuesday — which would allow local governments to charge citizens 12 1/2 cents per page to simply look at records, limit access to records of government contractors, and exempt volunteer fire companies' records from disclosure, among other terrible things — is dead, at least until the spring. (You can read the bill here.) That's what Terry Mutchler, executive director of the Office of Open Records, just told the Clog.
"There wasn't enough support for it [in the state House]," says Mutchler, despite the fact that it passed unanimously, and without debate, in the Senate. "There were going to be tons of amendments, so it couldn't happen, and even if the House were to make it happen, it's not going to until the spring."
[...] more — up to $1.50 per page. Not to mention, our state Senate recently passed a bill (that is dead for now, thank God) that would've charged people to simply look at — just look at! — public [...]
 |
| Evan Lopez |
Today, 47 big-shot mayors and commissioners from around the state — mostly Democrats, as far as I can tell — wrote a letter to gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett, asking him to rethink his opposition to a Marcellus Shale severance tax. And true, he should. As his Democratic foe Dan Onorato points out in a press release, though, Common Cause Pennsylvania found that Corbett is the "No. 1 Pennsylvania recipient of contributions from the gas industry over the last decade" — meaning it's unlikely he'll do a 180 anytime soon. What Onorato fails to mention in the press release, however, is that he's also taken a good amount of campaign contributions from the gas industry himself — at least $74,000 — as have many other Democrats. (During the gubernatorial primary election, Montgomery County commissioner Joe Hoeffel was the only Dem who vowed to not take any donations from Shale drillers.)
Anyway, check out the letter:
October 6, 2010
Tom Corbett
Corbett for Governor
200 North Third Street, 13th Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17101Dear Mr. Corbett:
As locally elected officials from across the state, we believe the Marcellus Shale is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Pennsylvania. We can grow our economy, create local jobs and preserve our natural resources — but only if it's done right.
But your plan will protect Big Oil & Gas at the expense of taxpayers in our communities, and we are writing to ask you to start putting Pennsylvania taxpayers first.
In the towns, cities and counties that many of us are elected to serve, we are already seeing wear-and-tear on our roads as a result of the heavy equipment that the industry requires. We don't want our taxpayers to be stuck with the bill to fix these infrastructure challenges.
And for all of us — those in the Marcellus Shale region and those outside it — protecting the drinking water of the families in our communities is a top priority and a deep concern. We need proper oversight so that our water is safe to drink and our rivers are not polluted.
As the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association recently reported, over the last 2 1/2 years, drilling companies have been cited for 1,500 environmental and safety violations in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania State Police have found âsignificant increases in heavy truck traffic in areas where Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling operations are taking placeâ — and in one 3-day enforcement period this summer, they ordered 250 vehicles to be taken off the road and kept out of service. The oil and gas industry cannot be allowed to police itself.
This does not have to be a partisan issue. Many Republicans — including the Senate Republican leadership and 12 members of the House Republican caucus — agree that there should be a severance tax, just like every other major gas-producing state already has.
Please put Pennsylvania's taxpayers first and do not leave us — and our tax-paying constituents — to pay for all the costs while the gas drillers make hundreds of millions of dollars from our natural resources.
There's a common-sense approach that will enable us to develop the potential of the Marcellus Shale and protect Pennsylvania's taxpayers. We hope you will stop sticking up for your Big Oil & Gas donors and instead look out for Pennsylvania taxpayers.
(List of Signers After the Jump)
Local-Elected Officials Signing Letter to Tom Corbett
Phil Krivacek, Mayor
Duquesne (Allegheny County)
Rich Hrivnak, Mayor
Plum (Allegheny County)
Dominick Pomposelli, Mayor
Wilmerding (Allegheny County)
John Dindak, Mayor
West Homestead (Allegheny County)
Don Baumgarten, Mayor
Castle Shannon (Allegheny County)
John Thompson, Mayor
Wilkinsburg (Allegheny County)
Mark Vogel, Mayor
Braddock Hills (Allegheny County)
Louis Payne, Mayor
East Pittsburgh (Allegheny County)
Greg Erosenko, Mayor
Monroeville (Allegheny County)
Nicholas Yanosich, Mayor
Industry (Beaver County)
Debbie Giska Rose, Mayor
Conway (Beaver County)
Francis Szatkiewicz, Mayor
Ohioville (Beaver County)
Diane Ellis-Marseglia, Commissioner
Bucks County
Thomas Trigona, Mayor
Johnstown (Cambria County)
Bill O'Gurek, Commissioner
Carbon County
Kathi Cozzone, Commissioner
Chester County
Josh Maxwell, Mayor
Downingtown (Chester County)
Leo Scoda, Mayor
Phoenixville (Chester County)
Carolyn Committa, Mayor
West Chester (Chester County)
Mark McCracken, Commissioner
Clearfield County
Richard P. Viello Jr., Mayor
Lock Haven (Clinton County)
Joel Long, Commissioner
Clinton County
C. Sherman Allen, Commissioner
Crawford County
George Hartwick, Commissioner
Dauphin County
Jayne Young, Mayor
Lansdowne (Delaware County)
Ronald Beimel, Commissioner
Elk County
Blair Zimmerman, Mayor
Waynesburg (Greene County)
Jeffrey Pisarcik, Commissioner
Jefferson County
Mike Washo, Commissioner
Lackawanna County
Corey O'Brien, Commissioner
Lackawanna County
Rick DeBlasio, Commissioner
Lawrence County
Steve Craig, Commissioner
Lawrence County
Ed Pawlowski, Mayor
Allentown (Lehigh County)
Mary Anne Petrilla, Commissioner
Luzerne County
Tom Leighton, Mayor
Wilkes-Barre (Luzerne County)
Judith Church, Commissioner
McKean County
Bonnie Heath, Mayor
Pottstown (Montgomery County)
Joe Hoeffel, Commissioner
Montgomery County
John Stoffa, County Executive
Northampton County
Sal Panto, Mayor
Easton (Northampton County)
Mantura Gallagher, Commissioner
Schuylkill County
Francis McAndrew, Commissioner
Schuylkill County
Pamela Tokar-Ickes, Commissioner
Somerset County
MaryAnn Warren, Commissioner
Susquehanna County
Bracken Burns, Commissioner
Washington County
John Lignelli, Mayor
Donora (Washington County)
Tom Balya, Commissioner
Westmoreland County
[...] 47 state mayors and commissioners tell Corbett to ?put Pa. taxpayers first?Philadelphia Citypaper (blog) [...]
[...] 47 state mayors and commissioners tell Corbett to âput Pa … [...]
 |
This afternoon, the state Senate passed — without debate, without a public hearing, and with a single dissenting vote — the insidious SB 1469, which will basically allow local governments to slink further away from the spirit of the hard-fought Right to Know Act the legislature passed in 2008. And seeing how our own city leaders handle public records requests, this is not at all confidence inspiring. Among other things, this bill will allow the fine folks at City Hall and other local agencies to charge you up to 12 1/2 cents per page just to look — not to copy, but to look — at public records.
Want to take a gander at, say, the city's contracts with its labor unions? Or maybe a city budget? How about some personnel files, or the Internal Affairs files of dirty cops? Bring your checkbook: Those things can run into the hundreds of pages. And that's exactly the point, despite Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi's disingenuous claim that this bill would only address procedural problems, or whatever.
Another âprocedural problemâ: The bill would also narrow the citizenry's ability to obtain records about government contractors — you know, like the kind the state recently contracted with the spy on activists.
The bill now goes to the House, which is also considering its own affront to the Right to Know Act, a bill that would exempt government workers' dates of birth and home addresses from public records, as Social Security numbers are already exempted. Of course, these are also the types of info newspapers often use to sort out different people with the same name. As Deborah Musselman, director of government affairs at the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, tells us, âEliminating these identifiers from public view could result in an innocent person being wrongly associated with criminal case records.â
The House bill is currently in appropriations. Hopefully it stays there. And hopefully the House — which has had more than its share of corruption problems of late — recognizes that the last thing this state needs is a weakened public records law, and dumps this thing. OK, maybe we keep the good parts of the bill, like the part the requires state agencies to produce records in the requested format, and the part that expands access to drafts prepared at public meetings. But the rest of it needs to go.
Sunshine, as they say, is the best disinfectant; sadly, our leaders are all too happy to live in the shadows.
More on this in A Million Stories this week.
*With reporting by Holly Otterbein.
Getting to public records in Philly is already a sad joke. This is FUBAR.
Jeffrey Billman here with your morning fix:
Delaware teabaggers have elected Democrat Chris Coons their next senator.
Three people in Atlantic City told authorities they saw someone fall out of a plane without a parachute. The cops have yet to find a body.
Ed Rendell is "appalled" that his administration was tracking anti-gas drilling activists — a story broken, in part, by our very own Isaiah Thompson. From the Inky:
"Let me make this as clear as I can make it," the governor said at news conference Tuesday night, pounding his fist on the podium. "Protesting against an idea, a principle, a process, is not a real threat against infrastructure. Protesting is a God-given American right, a right that is in our Constitution, a right that is fundamental to all we believe in as Americans."
After the Teamsters union refused to budge on renegotiating their contract, the prospective deal for Philadelphia Media Network, led by a New York hedge fund, to buy the Inky, DN and philly.com has fallen apart. A new auction is set for next week. The Newspaper Guild is not happy, and claims the drivers union has threatened "thousands of jobs and the entire company by hijacking and derailing the closing process."
In a visit to the Masterman School, Barack Obama told students at the elite charter magnet: "Your life is what you make of it," Obama said. "And nothing — absolutely nothing — is beyond your reach. So long as you're willing to dream big. So long as you're willing to work hard. So long as you're willing to stay focused on your education."
Philly has paid out more than $32 million to settle lawsuits over the last year or so. Fox 29 is there.
Cole Hamels* struck out 13, and the Phils' 2-1 win against the Marlins — by the way, did anyone else notice how empty the Fish's stadium was? Jesus — gives them a two-game lead over the Braves in the NL East, after the Braves lost to the Nationals. The Braves are coming to the Bank next week in what could well be a decisive series, and I will be there.
*Corrected.
The Masterman School if NOT a charter school. Its a Philadelphia School District Magnet school.. big difference
Who is this new Hammels guy?
 |
 |
| Courtesy of Eric Ascalon | |
| BEFORE (left) and AFTER (right) | |
Earlier this week, the Clog told you about how artist David Ascalon, in a recently filed lawsuit, says that a piece of public art he created — a Holocaust memorial in Harrisburg — was "drastically altered" to the point of "bastardization" and "mutilation," all without his permission:
Ascalon claims that Grindle switched out the serpent's Cor-ten material for stainless steel, which doesn't sound like that big of a deal, until you consider that stainless steel was supposed to represent the Jews' tenacity, not the er ⦠Nazis'.
âThe modification of the sculpture has changed it so that now the same shiny stainless steel that represents the enduring Jewish people is also used to depict the Nazi regime and atrocities of the Holocaust,â reads the lawsuit. âThis alteration is abhorrent.â
At the time, none of the three defendants had responded to our calls. But the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg called yesterday to tell their side of the story.
Harvey Freedenberg, the Federation's attorney, says that in the mid-aughts (the memorial was finished in 1996) it "became apparent that the spiral section of the work was deteriorating. Mr. Ascalon was called in and I don't think he disagreed. ⦠Where disagreement arose was over who was going to be responsible for restoring the work. All I can say is that it did not reach a satisfactory conclusion. So the Federation decided to move ahead with what was necessary construction."
When asked why the Federation didn't restore the spiral section with Cor-ten steel — that purposefully rusty, ugly material meant to represent the âoppression, decay and miseryâ under the Nazi regime, as Ascalon intended — and used stainless steel instead, Freedenberg is elusive.
"I can't comment on that because I was not privy to those discussions," he says. "The Federation decided on a restoration it felt was appropriate."
We'll update as we learn more.
I worked on Public Art Policy for the NYC Art Commission re: Richard Serra and this is a shame. The artist is correct that the work should not have been changed and his name should not have been removed.
I'm all for artists' rights and intent, but Cor-ten isn't supposed to deteriorate. If it did within a decade, the artist is at fault and should have been at least partly responsible for the restoration if not fully responsible. Because the Federation had to pay for the restoration, I think they can replace it with what they want and desiring to avoid having to restore it again 10 years down the road, I can see why they chose a different material. Ascalon should understand that instead of whining about his "bastardized" work.
From what I've read about this on other pages, the artist did step up and take responsibility. And why did the Federation grid his name off of his artwork? That is just plain wrong. I think any artist would rightfully be fuming about that.
I have been in the art restoration business for over 20 years and I have never heard of a restorer signing work, much less removing an original artist's signature. What the JF did was pretty clueless, but what the restorer did was malpractice. If the JF had competent legal advice, they would be siding with the artist against the restorer for defacing their art and clearly diminishing it's value. On top of being clearly morally indefensible, can you imagine removing a signature from a Monet or a Rembrandt and what that would do to its worth? The restorer should be required to redo all his work in the right materials, remove his signature, and allow the artist to come back and sign it again.
 |
| Courtesy of the Pennsylvania House |
| Rep. Mark Cohen |
Yes, it's cool and all that state Rep. Mark Cohen (D-Philadelphia) introduced a bill back in April '09 to legalize medical marijuana. (It's cool, as well, that state Senator Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery) introduced a matching bill in the Senate this May.) But both bills are stalled in committee ⦠and what chance do they have of ever getting out, in this conservative bizarro old-people land known as Pennsylvania?
More than you might think, it turns out. According to a recent Franklin & Marshall poll, 80 percent of voters favor medical marijuana. 80 percent! Do you know how many people in Pennsylvania are old as shit? That's a lot of old people saying medical marijuana is OK by them. Pretty encouraging.
Terry Madonna and Berwood Yost, of F&M, call this proportion "striking."
"Just about every demographic group supports the use of medical marijuana, but the likelihood of supporting it is higher among women than men, among liberals and moderates than conservatives, and among those who do not consider themselves born-again Christians," wrote Madonna and Yost in a press release.
Even more interesting: Although four in five Pennsylvanians support medical weed, only one in three — or 33 percent — support complete legalization. Still, that's up from 22 percent two years ago.
[...] POLL: 80% of Keystoners back medical marijuana… Comments are closed, but you can leave a trackback: Trackback URL. . [...]
[...] Good News: Pennsylvanians like pot (so long as it's medicinal … [...]
[...] Good News: Pennsylvanians like pot (so long as it’s medicinal) :: The Clog :: Blog Archive :: ... [...]
|
|
| Courtesy of Eric Ascalon | |
| BEFORE (left) and AFTER (right) | |
If any of you Tyler or UArts grads secures a job with the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg or the city of Harrisburg's Department of Parks, Recreation & Enrichment, think twice before dropping your gallery gig to erect the next great piece of public art. Once you've completed your sculpture or painting or meta-performance art piece about performance art pieces for the city, you may return years later to find that your name has been erased from your work, and, even worse, the whole project has been âdrastically alteredâ without your permission to the point of âmutilationâ and âbastardization.â
At least, that's what David Ascalon, an artist from Tel Aviv, claims happened to him. In a lawsuit filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Ascalon says that the Federation commissioned him to create a Holocaust memorial on public property (which is maintained by the Parks Dept.) that did not âprettify the landscapeâ but instead was âcommitted to developing a truth-telling monument.â
In other words, the death of 6 million Jews was horrifying, so let's make sure the memorial isn't all puppies and rainbows, eh?
Ascalon complied. His memorial depicted a serpentine made of Cor-ten steel — a purposefully rusty, ugly material to represent the âoppression, decay and miseryâ under the Nazi regime — wrapping itself around the Star of David, conversely constructed out of shiny, flawless stainless steel to represent the goodness and permanence of the Jewish people. A âtear-filled ceremonyâ on July 17, 1994, fêted the creation of the Holocaust memorial, and the Patriot News gushed that, âa lot of symbolism is featured in the monument. ⦠The rusting barbed wire that wraps around the core represents the fences around Nazi death camps.â According to Ascalon, the memorial was so popular that it made it into Yumiko Mochizuki's book Public Art: A World's Eye View, which chronicles the greatest public visual art.
Fast-forward to 2007, when Ascalon says he found that his name had âbeen completely excised and grinded off of the memorialâ without his permission and replaced with this: âRestored by David Grindle 2006.â
Additionally, Ascalon claims that Grindle switched out the serpent's Cor-ten material for stainless steel, which doesn't sound like that big of a deal, until you consider that stainless steel was supposed to represent the Jews' tenacity, not the er ⦠Nazis'.
âThe modification of the sculpture has changed it so that now the same shiny stainless steel that represents the enduring Jewish people is also used to depict the Nazi regime and atrocities of the Holocaust,â reads the lawsuit. âThis alteration is abhorrent.â
Oy vey. Did we mention that several of Ascalon's relatives, including cousins, uncles and two grandparents, were killed in the Holocaust?
Ascalon is demanding an injunction, as well as actual and statutory damages, in his suit against the Parks Dept., the Jewish Federation and Grindle.
None of the three defendants have returned our calls.
Holy shit! I'd love to know which moron (or cadre of morons) was behind that decision, and hear the explanation! Thanks. Please keep us posted.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Philly City Paper, Philly News Now. Philly News Now said: The âbastardizationâ of public art in Harrisburg: Courtesy of Eric Ascalon BEFORE (left) and AFTER (right) If an... http://bit.ly/adgTGI [...]
Once again a visual artist's work has been disrespected by a local government body. These avoidable incidents are bound to be repeated unless the respectability of artists and their work becomes a part of everyday conversation in households across the U.S. A similar case invoking the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 or VARA is winding its way through the court. Chapman Kelley vs. Chicago Park District will have been in the Seventh Circuit Court's lap for a year on September 10. That day will mark the first anniversary since oral argument (promising to Kelley, we are told) was heard in Chicago about the destruction of his 66,000 sq.ft. public artwork "Chicago Wildflower Works" (1984-2004), which was deemed by the court to be either a painting or sculpture. A landmark appellate decision is imminent. Another important VARA case still in progress on the east coast is the installation artist Christoph Buchel case involving the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. The integrity of Buchel's "Training Ground for Democracy" is the focus of that dispute. David Ascalon is to be commended for standing up for his moral and personality rights as set forth in VARA. The artistic community will be better off as a result of his bold action. John Viramontes - Council for Artists Rights
This is a punch in the stomach to all public artists (or any artist for that matter). It is testament that artists' rights are not well understood and that the role of public art is often taken for granted. Thank you for sharing this. Jennifer Corio - Cobalt Designworks
[...] this week, the Clog told you about how artist David Ascalon, in a recently filed lawsuit, says that a piece of public art he created — a Holocaust memorial in Harrisburg — was "drastically [...]
[...] August, we told you about the artist David Ascalon and what he called the "bastardization" of a public sculpture in Harrisburg: In a lawsuit filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, [...]
 |
| Evan Lopez |
You already know that the new state budget means lots of cash for new prisons, $5.5 million in library cuts and $1.1 million in child care cuts. But what about everything else? In our new feature Budget Fuss, we'll be looking at lesser-reported casualties (and gains — all two of them) in the state budget.
In this week's A Million Stories, we explored the $308 million going toward the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP), which provides grants for beneficiaries who match the state's buy-in dollar-for-dollar. Gov. Ed Rendell and supporters say RACP is a way to create jobs; critics say it's a way to buy votes and show clout, and that if you want to create jobs, there are better ways to do it than building a library named after Sen. Arlen Specter.
We told you a few of our favorite RACP projects — $2 million going to Antrim Township for, well, the state doesn't know yet; $5 million for the "redevelopment of an abandoned historic former schoolhouse" in Luzerne County; $3 million going to a rec center at King's College, a private Catholic school with 2,200 students — but what about all the rest?
Here's every last RACP project in Philadelphia and its surrounding counties, just in case your wonky self wanted to know (and FYI, if you want to see all RACP projects in the entire state, go here, to section 6).
For Philly:
$20 million: Acquisition, infrastructure, construction and other related costs for the American Revolution Center
$5 million: Construction, infrastructure and other related costs for mixed-use development on Gray's Ferry Corridor
$10 million: Construction of a Comprehensive Applied Research/Educational facility at Drexel University, including related costs
$15 million: Acquisition, infrastructure, construction and other related costs for redevelopment of the Tasty Baking Co. facility at Fox and Roberts Streets, including adjacent areas
$5 million: Acquisition, infrastructure, construction and other related costs for Norris Square Civic Association's mixed-use complex
$1 million: Infrastructure, construction and other related costs for an inpatient specialty hospital at the Wills Eye Institute
$7.5 million: Acquisition, infrastructure, construction and other related costs for a facility at the Philadelphia Navy Yard for commercial, industrial or multipurpose use
$5 million: Acquisition, infrastructure, construction and other related costs for development by ASPIRA, Inc., of Philadelphia at the Cardinal Dougherty High School
$5 million: Infrastructure, construction, renovation and other related costs for the Independence Visitor Center
$10 million: Construction, demolition, land acquisition, infrastructure, redevelopment and other related costs for Philadelphia University, including the Arlen Specter Library
$750,000: Land acquisition, site preparation, renovation, demolition, construction, infrastructure and other related costs for campus expansion and facility improvements at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
$10 million: Construction and other related costs for mixed-use retail and hotel project at Fourth and Race Streets
$3 million: Construction, infrastructure, redevelopment and other related costs for a new Community Legal Services building
For Bucks County:
$340,000: Rehabilitate track and install unloading equipment at Junell Corporaiton/Adv. Lube
$5 million: Construction, renovations and infrastructure improvements in the Bucks County Enterprise Zone
$15 million: Construction, infrastructure and other related costs at the Keystone Industrial Port Complex
For Delaware County:
$10 million: Rehabilitation and enhancement of the Union Square Neighborhood Revitalization District, including blight removal, streetscape remediation and new construction
$5 million: Acquisition, construction, infrastructure and other related costs for the retail development of a 35-acre site in Upper Darby
For Montgomery County:
$1.5 million: Construction, renovations and infrastructure improvements for an industrial facility
$7.5 million: Acquisition, construction and other related costs for a mixed-use commercial/retail development within the boundary of Fornance, Wood and Locust streets
 |
| Evan Lopez |
We're a little late on this piece of news, but for those of you following the How Evil is Tom Corbett? Barometer at home, we figured we had to add it to the tally. As you all know, GOP gubernatorial nom Corbett made quite the gaffe earlier this month, channeling The Big Lebowski: "People don't want to come back to work while they still have unemployment. ... The jobs are there, but if we keep extending unemployment, people are going to sit there and ... I've literally had construction companies tell me, 'I can't get people to come back to work, until' ... they say, 'I'll come back to work when unemployment runs out.'"
It turns out that Corbett's story is not quite true. According to Capitolwire:
Kevin Silva, a senior vice president with the Warrell Corporation of Camp Hill, Cumberland County, said the company had been told by one applicant for a machine operator's position that, after factoring in travel costs, that he could make more money while receiving unemployment benefits.
Silva told Capitolwire that he did not know where the applicant lived. The position pays between $11 and $15 an hour, plus benefits.
Silva said the company did hire 50 foreign college students for seasonal work, not full-time positions, as Corbett told the online news service last week.
Kevin Silva, a senior vice president with the Warrell Corporation of Camp Hill, Cumberland County, said the company had been told by one applicant for a machine operator's position that, after factoring in travel costs, that he could make more money while receiving unemployment benefits.
Silva told Capitolwire that he did not know where the applicant lived. The position pays between $11 and $15 an hour, plus benefits.
Silva said the company did hire 50 foreign college students for seasonal work, not full-time positions, as Corbett told the online news service last week.
Therefore, Mr. Corbett, we adjust last week's HEITCB? score of 20 (on a scale of 0 to 23), which you received for your jobless gaffe, to 22, for fudging the truth. A score of 22, on a scale 0 to 23! Shit. Even we expected more of you.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Philly City Paper, Philly News Now. Philly News Now said: City Paper forced to adjust last week's HEITC? score: Evan Lopez We're a little late on this piece of news, but f... http://bit.ly/cb0Fen [...]
 |
| Neal Santos |
| Eyevette Wilson is a crisis intervention counselor at Women Against Abuse. |
You already know that the new state budget means lots of cash for new prisons, $5.5 million in library cuts and $1.1 million in child care cuts. But what about everything else? In our new feature Budget Fuss, we'll be looking at lesser-reported casualties (and gains all two of them) in the state budget.
At first, it appears as though domestic violence funding and related services have only been cut here and there, in small amounts: From the 2009/10 to 2010/11 fiscal year, the state's domestic violence funding dropped from $12,487,000 to $12,385,000 ($102,000 cut); rape crisis funding dropped from$7,146,000 to $7,087,000 ($59,000 cut); and legal services funding dropped from $3,064,000 to $3,039,000 ($25,000 cut).
But then you look at the line item for the Human Services Development Fund (HSDF), which funds much of Women Against Abuse Legal Center's budget. Women Against Abuse (WAA) is a Philly nonprofit that provides services to domestic violence victims, including a legal center that gives victims court advocates for educational and emotional guidance. The state money for HSDF dropped from $29,346,000 to $23,478,000 that's a $5.9 million cut.
(It's worth noting that the city usually gets $6 million each year from HSDF; these funds are then directed to various city departments, which are then re-directed to some nonprofits like WAA. We'll be looking into how the HSDF cuts affect other city departments and nonprofits in the upcoming weeks.)
"We are very concerned about how the cuts to HSDF will affect our Legal Center," says Katie Young-Wildes, WAA's associate director of development. "The HSDF funds $250,000 for the Women Against Abuse Legal Center, which helps thousands of women, men and children break free from abuse each year."
With the Legal Center's total budget at $1.1 million, HSDF money accounts for nearly a quarter of that.
Young-Wildes says WAA is awaiting to hear from the city how much the nonprofit will now get from HSDF, in light of the cuts.
To better understand what WAA and its Legal Center does, you can read an article I wrote about the nonprofit earlier this year. It's also worth noting that, though the cuts in domestic violence funding, rape crisis and legal services didn't drop by too much this time around, they come on top of $296,268 in city budget cuts to WAA last year, and a 4.7 percent decrease in state funding five years ago.
Think there's something we should cover for Budget Fuss? E-mail holly.otterbein@citypaper.net.
[...] Budget Fuss: How does the state budget affect domestic violence funding? :: The Clog :: Blog Archive... [...]
[...] Budget Fuss: How does the state budget affect domestic violence … [...]
[...] Budget Fuss: How does the state budget affect domestic violence funding? :: The Clog :: Blog Archive... [...]
[...] Budget Fuss: How does the state budget affect domestic violence funding? :: The Clog :: Blog Archive... [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Lauras_House. Lauras_House said: RT @DVintheNews: Budget Fuss: How does the state budget affect domestic violence funding? http://ow.ly/28LqM [...]
[...] Budget Fuss: How does the state budget affect domestic violence … [...]
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
