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Thursday July 29, 2010
Budget Negotiations Have Reached Crisis Point - Kids Need Your Help NOW!
Dear Friend of Children,
Pennsylvania’s budget negotiations have reached a crisis point and your help is urgently needed to move them forward.
There is no question that we are facing budget cuts ranging from $100 million to more than $1.2 billion. Early childhood education, continued progress in student achievement, access to children’s health and behavioral health services, job training, recreational opportunities – all could soon be on the chopping block.
The size of potential cuts depends on negotiations in Harrisburg and Washington that have become bogged down over the past week. Use the links below to tell your State legislators and U.S. Congressperson not to sacrifice Pennsylvania’s kids to the partisan politics of Harrisburg and Washington!
Congress must extend FMAP – the enhanced federal Medicaid matching rate to states – for another six months to avoid $850 million in cuts to Pennsylvania’s budget. While this was all but certain six months ago, and even more likely a week ago, FMAP is now in jeopardy. If Congress doesn’t renew it by mid-July, nothing will be safe from cuts. Click here to learn more about FMAP.
At the same time, the Pennsylvania General Assembly must increase revenue to avoid another $300 million in cuts. Common sense revenue proposals being debated include taxing smokeless tobacco and cigars; charging a fee for the extraction of natural gas from Marcellus Shale; closing corporate tax loopholes and reducing a vendor sales tax discount for Pennsylvania’s largest businesses. All of these would, when passed, help protect working and middle class Pennsylvanians. Click here to learn more about these proposals.
If Congress and the Pennsylvania General Assembly both act quickly to make these funds available, Pennsylvanians will still see about $100 million in budget cuts.
But if one or both of these measures fail we’ll see cuts as high as $1 billion, undoing much of the progress we have made for children in the past decade
The choice depends on what we tell our elected officials in Harrisburg and Washington. Use the links below to tell your US Congressional Representative and state legislators to act now to protect our investments in kids!
About this E-Alert
In an effort to keep our friends and colleagues up-to-date on what’s going on with children and families in our region, PCCY will, from time to time, issue an E-Alert on an issue that we need YOU to take action on!
We will: provide you with the information on the issues
We need YOU to: take the action step(s) that are listed
We hope that you will join us in helping to protect the lives and life chances of children and families in our region by doing something TODAY to help protect their tomorrows. However, if you would like to be removed from the e-mail list and receive no further updates, please send an e-mail to info@pccy.org.
* END ALERT *
President: Carolyn Adams
Executive Director: Shelly D. Yanoff
Communications Director: Sid Holmes
Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY)
1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Sixth Floor
Philadelphia, Pa 19103
Phone: 215-563-5848
Fax: 215-563-9442
Website: www.pccy.org
E-mail: info@pccy.org
Webmaster: Steven Fynes
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