Advocates urge Healey to rescind cuts to cash assistance programs

Image | Courtesy of State House News Service Members of the Lift Our Kids coalition gather on the State House steps Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024 to protest Gov. Maura Healey's emergency budget cuts to cash assistance programs.

Write a Comment

By Sam Doran | State House News Service

Around 30 members of the Lift Our Kids coalition rallied on the Beacon Street sidewalk Thursday, calling on Gov. Maura Healey to rescind her mid-year budget cuts to cash assistance programs for low-income seniors, people with disabilities, and families with children.

Cries of "shame" echoed in front of the State House as speakers like Rebekah Gewirtz of the National Association of Social Workers deplored how the cuts will mean "more desperately hard times" for residents including "the most vulnerable kids."

The governor cut more than $17 million from the benefits programs (TAFDC and EAEDC) for fiscal 2024 as part of the $375 million in emergency savings measures she announced Monday.

Gewirtz referenced the more than $8 billion balance of the state's rainy day fund and said "we cannot stand by" while thousands of Bay Staters see reduced cash assistance benefits.

"We have heard these cuts being referred to as unfortunate, as 'belt-tightening' and as necessary. For so many of us, this is impossible to understand, especially in light of the large tax cut package that was passed a mere few months ago," she said.

April Jennison of the Coalition for Social Justice also took issue with the idea that there aren't enough resources on hand.

"When Gov. Healey says these cuts are necessary because we don't have enough money, that's a concept I understand -- if it were true," Jennison said. "But this isn't a case of 'not enough.' This is about priorities. At least, that's how it seems to me. And I call on Gov. Healey to prove me wrong by rescinding these cuts."

Protest signs in the crowd included: "Deep Poverty is a Policy Choice," and "Poverty is a Policy Choice (by the rich)."

"Kids will suffer, and they will go hungry, and that was a choice," Jennison said from the State House steps.