ACTION ALERT! MIRA's Budget Amendments

MIRA FY10 House Amendments

The following is a list of amendments that are being filed on MIRA’s budgetary priorities. Please contact your Representatives TODAY and ask them to co-sponsor the following amendments:

Citizenship for New Americans Program (CNAP) (Line item 4003-0122) was funded at $500,000 in the House Ways & Means budget, which represents a $80,000 cut from the Governor’s House 1 budget recommendation of $580,000 and a decrease of $150,000 from FY09. This represents a decrease of more than 25% from FY09

• Please contact Representative Cabral’s Office at 617-722-2017 to co-sponsor an amendment increasing the funding for citizenship to $580,000, equal to the Governor’s budget recommendation.

Adult Basic Education and English for Speakers of Other Languages (Line item 7035-0002) The House Ways & Means budget included $28,085,646 for, which represents a reduction of more than $3 million from FY09 levels of $31.1 million and $2 million from FY08.

• Please contact Representative Smizik at 617-722-2676 and Representative Campbell at 617-722-2877 to co-sponsor their amendments to fund the ABE/ESOL line item at FY08 levels of $30.1 million.

The line item (4513-1130) that includes the Refugee and Immigrant Safety and Empowerment (RISE) Program took a severe cut of over 40% down to $4,058,264 from nearly $6.4 million.

• Please contact the office of Representative Driscoll at 617-722-2396 to support an amendment increasing the 4513-1130 line item to the Governor’s recommended level of $6.4 million.
• Please contact the office of Representative Malia at 617-722-2060 to co-sponsor an amendment increasing RISE and line item 4513-1130 funding by $300,000.

The MassHealth Outreach and Enrollment Grants line item (4000-0352) was eliminated from the House Ways & Means budget.

• Please contact the office of Representatives O’Day at 617-722-2220 and Representative Scibak at 617-722-2370 to co-sponsor amendments to reinstate the line item at $3.5 million.

If you do not know who your State Representative and/or Senator are, please visit: http://www.wheredoivotema.com.

For questions, contact Toby Guevin, State Policy Director, at 617-350-5480 x216 or tguevin@miracoalition.org