Burlington County Times: Burlington County nonprofit struggling with funding cuts

 

 
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
By David Levinsky
 
WILLINGBORO — Maria Lourdes Gaitan moved to New Jersey from her native Colombia three years ago, married an American citizen and settled in Burlington City. She hopes to one day become a U.S. citizen.
 

But she doesn’t read or speak English, which makes navigating the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services difficult.

 
Gaitan has learned to rely on the staff and volunteers of the Spanish American Social Cultural Association of Burlington County for help in translating English documents as well as other services such as job training, basic education, housing assistance, legal help and child care.
 
She called the Willingboro-based nonprofit group, also known as SASCA, “her extended family” and said she would be like an “orphan” without its assistance.
 
But providing such help to Gaitan and other immigrants has grown increasingly difficult during the last year, as the economic crisis has increased their needs during a time when state funding to assist them has been slashed.
 
“We’ve lost more than half our funding over the last year,” association director Jose Ramos said Wednesday. “It’s forced us to cut back hours, lay off staff and curtail activities.”
 
At one point this year, Ramos said the association had to dispel a rumor that circulated in the county that the organization had folded.
 
“This, during a time when the problems and need have become all the more dramatic,” he said.
 
The problem isn’t just isolated to SASCA. Thirty-three other nonprofit groups that cater to Latino communities across the state have faced similar issues because of reductions made last year to the Center for Hispanic Policy, Research and Development and the Hispanic Women’s Resource Center.
 
Grants from the two organizations make up most of the nonprofits’ funding, officials said.
 
The current fiscal year’s budget cut $2.2 million from the Center for Hispanic Policy, Research and Development and $760,000 from the Hispanic Women’s Resource Center.
 
Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed $29.6 billion budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 does not restore any funding to either group, and proposed requirements could cap or redirect what funding is available away from groups like SASCA.
 
Christie and his administration have said that the state’s fiscal crisis has forced many tough decisions, but that many programs crucial to poor and disabled residents have been preserved.
 
Rob Duffey, a spokesman for the Better Choices for New Jersey campaign, countered that the state budget cuts have forced groups that aid the poor to compete against one another for what available money is left.
 
“Chris Christie has created this false choice that’s pitting different groups against each other,” Duffey said Wednesday during a news conference at the SASCA offices behind the St. Paul’s United Methodist Church.
 
More than two dozen Latino residents who receive services from the association stood with Ramos and Duffey during the event, and some, like Gaitan, spoke in support of the nonprofit group.
“If (SASCA) closed, it is something that would be very sorry and wrong because we depend upon them here,” Gaitan said in Spanish translated by Ramos.
 
Duffey and other advocates want the Democratic-dominated state Legislature to rewrite Christie’s budget to restore funding to nonprofit social services groups as well NJ FamilyCare, the state’s health insurance program for poor families, even if it requires a tax increase on wealthy residents to do so.
 
“Gov. Christie has left a giant leadership gap in our state. If he’s only interested in leaving no millionaire or corporation behind, then it’s up to our Legislature to stand up, step up, and fight to restore these cuts,” Duffey said.
 
Some Democratic lawmakers have spoken in favor of raising an income tax surcharge on residents who earn more than $1 million, dubbed “the millionaire’s tax,” but Christie has threatened to veto any tax increase.
 
Democratic lawmakers are expected to introduce a revised state budget as early as Monday. The state Constitution requires the Legislature to approve a budget by July 1.