Anti-poverty advocates fear possible program cuts

from Newsday

By ANGELA DELLI SANTI

TRENTON, N.J. - Two weeks before Gov. Jon S. Corzine unveils a budget that he has promised will cap runaway spending while forcing deep program cuts, a group of anti-poverty advocates launched a pre-emptive strike, showing how the state's poorest residents will be hurt.

Legal Services of New Jersey Poverty Research Institute released a 679-page "Eye on the Budget" report Wednesday with recommendations for $167 million in new or increased social services. They include funding increases for health care for uninsured parents, rental assistance, emergency food aid, child care payments and transitional housing for inmates re-entering society.

Faced with soaring fixed costs and a recurring budget deficit, Corzine has proposed drastic toll increases to pay down state debt and fund transportation projects. His financial restructuring plan includes caps on future spending and restrictions on borrowing.

Recognizing the steep cuts likely in the budget Corzine will soon introduce, Sheldon Presser, an Anti-Poverty Network member and policy analyst for the children's advocacy group Association for Children of New Jersey, voiced alarm.

"The Anti-Poverty Network is very concerned about rumored cuts in essential programs that serve the most vulnerable residents of our state," he said. "Cuts to the kinds of programs highlighted in this report would be devastating to the many children and families that are struggling to get by with the level of assistance they are currently getting."

The activists credited the governor for incremental increases in anti-poverty initiatives made last year _ an additional $10 million allocated for drug treatment, for example _ but said much more needs to be done to ease inequities in services for the poor.

"The basic human needs of state's most poor and vulnerable residents cannot be ignored," said the Rev. Bruce Davidson, co-founder of the Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey.