Posted on Fri, Apr. 9, 2010
By Matt Katz
Inquirer Staff Writer


When Rossanna Genao arrived at the Hispanic Family Center in Camden a decade ago, the Dominican native could neither speak English nor turn on a computer.

Today, Genao, a single mother of three, uses a computer to organize scheduling and payroll in her position as the supervisor of the cleaning staffs at two Burlington County school districts. She has hired several Spanish-speaking employees from Camden, and referred them to the Hispanic Family Center for English and computer classes.

"I can't be quiet about the opportunities this place gave to me," Genao said Thursday.

At a news conference staged by the Hispanic Family Center of Southern New Jersey and a coalition of unions and nonprofit organizations called Better Choices for New Jersey, Latino women and others described how the proposed state budget disproportionately affects minorities and the poor.

"The needs of our community have long been neglected," said Elsa Candelario, executive director of the Hispanic Family Center, which will lose 20 percent of its total funding for programming.

"The results of these programs are very clear: They decrease the rate of financial delinquency, they decrease the rate of violence against women, and they increase the rate of employment."

In the long run, the center saves the state money because it enables and empowers its clients, specifically women, to get better-paying jobs and become less reliant on welfare, Candelario argued.

At the news conference, affected organizations highlighted five cuts that they said were in Gov. Christie's proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning in July:

The three Hispanic Women's Resource Centers in New Jersey, which provide English literacy classes, computer classes, and a variety of other social services, would be eliminated.

The Hispanic Outreach Initiative, a state program that helps with job readiness and job placement, would lose $200,000 at each of its five offices. There were 1,800 clients in Camden alone this last year.

New Jersey After 3, which provides after-school programing, would lose all of its state funding in the budget, and has already lost half of its allocation for the current year. In Camden alone, 140 children at the Hispanic Family Center no longer have after-school programing.

The state Center for Hispanic Policy, Research and Development, which funds 34 organizations, would have its entire $3.7 million budget eliminated.

The Camden County Council on Economic Opportunity Urban Women's Center would see 75 percent of its budget cut, and two staff positions eliminated.

"There is no shared sacrifice in the budget," said Jose Ramos, executive director of the Spanish American Social Cultural Organization.

As the Legislature tackled the budget during hearings in Trenton Wednesday, Christie's office released a list of "myths," including the argument that the budget does not call for shared sacrifice.

The governor's office said that New Jersey has the worst "pro-growth business environment" in the nation, so raising taxes on small businesses is not the answer. As far as taxing the rich, the statement said, New Jersey's top income-tax rate was already 10.75 percent, compared with 3.07 percent in Pennsylvania.

Better Choices for New Jersey said the solution to the state's budget woes is to increase taxes on large corporations, residents making more than $400,000 and those who drive large gas-guzzling vehicles.

 

Originally available at: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20100409_Hispanic__women_s_groups_rip_Christie_s_cuts.html