How's this for some math that doesn't quite add up?
Missouri's Department of Social Services keeps track of 9,000 kids in foster care, investigates 75,000 reported cases of child abuse annually and provides 43,000 children daycare while their low-income parents go off to work.
To do that -- and more -- the Child Division takes up just 3 percent of the state's multi-billion-dollar bank account. Now, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon says he needs to cut $60 million from the state's 2010 budget to make ends meet. But 20 percent of those proposed cuts could be aimed at that already tiny pot for kids.
Last night, at least 100 Kansas City residents packed the empty lot across from Operation Breakthrough to demand Nixon protect the state's most vulnerable, rather than put them first on the chopping block.
The rally, organized by the Partnership for Children, criticized Nixon for targeting 40 percent of the $60 million in budget cuts at services for children, low-income families, the elderly and disabled. If current proposals are enacted, the advocacy group suggested, it could mean waiting lists for child care and the elimination of adoption resource centers. Hence, the eye-catching sea of placards featuring babies with bulls' eyes on their diapers.
At the side of the crowd, rally participants signed petitions, telling Nixon, "As a Missouri voter, I believe our state's most vulnerable citizens should be the first to be protected, not sacrificed, as you balance the budget." Even before the event, PFC had already gathered 500 signatures.
Among the demonstrators were parents, like Vanessa Simmons, who use possibly imperiled services. Simmons, a mother of three, says she's sent her kids to day care at Operation Breakthrough for years; otherwise she wouldn't be able to work. "They're talking about cutting the budget in Missouri, but working parents are already struggling to make it," she said.
So what's Nixon going to do?
Responding to the demonstrators' concerns, Scott Holste, a spokesman for the governor, gave me the following statement: "The Governor has asked each state agency to review their budgets for fiscal year 2010 and submit recommendations to the state budget office for proposed cuts. With the challenging budget picture for the foreseeable future, it is vital that Missouri's state government live within its means so we do not find ourselves having to cut core essential services, as other states have been forced to do. Each of the recommendations from the agencies is being reviewed, but there have been no decisions made. We expect those decisions to be made within the next few weeks."
Sign the Partnership's petition to Nixon here.
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The Governor's statement is interesting. To say that these cuts are necessary so we don't have to cut "core essential services" is even more interesting. Bike races, private chefs at the governor's mansion, raises for legislators, public advertisements for statewide elected officials, and many other "core essential services" were not cut from the budget.
I guess we know where our priorities are...
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