Also see: Mass. Budget Cutters Are Mentally Ill
"Blind workers protest closing of 102-year-old Malden facility" by Matt Viser, Globe Staff | October 24, 2008
A cluster of a half-dozen blind people with handmade cardboard signs stood outside the State House yesterday and demonstrated against Governor Deval Patrick's decision to close the state-run Ferguson Industries for the Blind as part of his budget cuts.
I'll bet they see better than our Harvard-trained, Coke-employed, globalist governor.
As workers entered the State House, the employees distributed fliers that had a simple plea in capital letters: "PLEASE HELP SAVE OUR JOBS."
The Malden facility - in business since 1906 - provided assembly worker jobs and, perhaps more important, a strong community for about 25 people with visual impairment. The small group of protesters yesterday, who had to take time off work to make it, showed that they don't have the numbers, or the political clout, of police or retiree unions.
Maybe we all out to stop working like this guy says, huh?
"I'm just so beside myself at this point," said Julie Sullivan, 47, a Maynard resident who has been a receptionist at Ferguson for five years and was among the protesters. "I don't know what to do or who to talk to. I'm just fed up with the situation. With the sign of a pen, it's all gone," she said.
A LOT of US are feeling that way!
Cuts to programs for the blind, the mentally disabled, the elderly, and other special needs populations have been denounced by advocates, who say they are hitting too deeply and causing hardship among people who can least afford to take a hit.
The protesters were not able to confront Patrick yesterday, who was in Belchertown swearing in a new judge and meeting with town administrators to discuss his budget cuts. The Patrick administration remained firm yesterday, saying that no matter how painful the cuts, there were no plans to overturn them.
"These are really difficult times, and the decision to close Ferguson was one of the difficult decisions we had to make," said Jennifer Kritz, deputy communications director for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. "We're working closely with the employees to make sure that we can try to help them get other jobs."
Of course, "flushing . . . millions of dollars away supporting a highly profitable industry" when it comes to $300 million in taxpayer dollars for Hollywood is o.k., even as the price of a school lunch rises; paying $13 million for a computer software system that could have cost less than $3 million is all right because the winner was a close friend of the House speaker, even as my poorer-than-dirt district "has been struggling to close a $2 million budget gap."; the lottery shelling out "millions of dollars" for sports tickets for "lottery officials, their family members, and friends" is fine, even as schools are closing; making interest payments to banks to the tune of "a staggering $22 billion" for the Big Pit, as we call it around here, is required, even as bridges are neglected across the state; and again, paying off banks like UBS, who can "demand repayment of an additional $2 million a month beginning in January" while also receiving a "$179 million payment," while the state pension fund loses $1 billion dollars -- which still didn't stop the executive director from carving himself a nice "$64,000 bonus on top of his $322,000 annual salary."
Oh, and did I not mention the $1 BILLION dollar giveaway to the pharmaceutical corporations, even though "it's never been easy to turn a profit in biotech?" Flush that money away, too, taxpayer. Of course, the war looters were next in line for a handout. And should the state be appropriating money for a "multimillion-dollar reconstruction" of golf courses?
Nor is it RECKLESS to BORROW the STATE INTO OBLIVION so they can PAY INTEREST to BANKS while SITTING ON $2 BILLION DOLLARS!
Oh, about those immigrants:
"200 pack meeting on immigration
More than 200 people turned out last night at Chelsea High School for the state's first town-hall-style meeting on how to better integrate immigrants into Massachusetts cities and towns. About two dozen people testified during the two-hour session, calling for more jobs, interpreters, and English and citizenship classes.
Yeah, ummm, WHO is going to PAY FOR THAT?!! It sure as hell better not be the TAXPAYER!!!!!!!!
Others had more personal appeals, including a Somali Muslim who said she wanted a place to pray and a Honduran woman whose son won two college scholarships but cannot use them because he is here illegally.
You GOTTA BE SHITTING ME?! As they tell our kids to go to cheaper schools, pay more, and shut others down?
The meeting was the first of six planned throughout the state, as part of an executive order Governor Deval Patrick issued over the summer (Boston Globe)."
Un-fucking-real, readers! That's why they made it a brief, huh?
You READY to BELIEVE ME?
Need one final insult, Mass. taxpayers?
See: Massachusetts Gives More Money to Hollywood
Yup, but they are going to CUT JOBS and SERVICES to the BLIND!! Don't you just get SICK of the BULLSHIT?!!!!
Patrick last week unveiled a plan to close a $1.4 billion budget gap through a variety of measures, including eliminating 1,000 state jobs through layoffs and retirements and not filling vacant positions.
The governor, using his powers to balance the budget, unilaterally made $624.5 million in cuts last week. Of that, about $47.8 million are costs that will be taken on by other agencies, and about $24 million in trust money will be used to make up for the losses - so the actual reductions in programming made by the governor is closer to $550 million.
Then why were the papers screaming more than twice that much? Selling the income tax, weren't you?
The governor is also preemptively denying another $146 million in anticipated spending requests from his departments. Another $41 million is being cut voluntarily by areas not under the governor's control, such as the offices of the attorney general and the state treasurer.
About $420.5 million of his plan still needs approval from the Legislature. A bill filed by the governor last week was referred yesterday to the House Ways and Means Committee. The cuts touched nearly every area of state government, including several high-profile initiatives important to the governor and top legislative leaders.
BULL-SHIT!!!!
"one of the governor's pet projects, the $3 million Commonwealth Corporation, is only taking a 5 percent trim"
The governor decided not to cut local aid to cities and towns, which was a relief to municipal officials. Advocates have criticized some of the cuts, but there have not been the large, widespread protests that have marked past budget cuts.
Aaah, screw you, Massachusetts residents.
The governor met with several groups before making his announcements. With the Legislature currently not in session, there are fewer people to hear protesters' pleas.
Ferguson Industries for the Blind employs visually impaired workers who make brooms, office supplies, and linens. It is scheduled to close next month, and 25 blind workers were told last week that they would lose their jobs. Workers yesterday began filing out paperwork that could enable them to receive 75 percent of their pay as part of their retirement. Another seven workers at the facility are state employees, most of whom will be relocated to other areas of state government.
In addition to closing Ferguson Industries for the Blind, state budget cuts are also affecting funding for basics like magnifying glasses and talking clocks for poor, elderly residents. Janet LaBreck, the state's Commissioner for the Blind, said in a recent interview that it "was a very, very difficult decision for us to have to see a program like Ferguson Industries to come to an end."
But the CORPORATE WELFARE CONTINUES to FLOW!!
"It's really hard," LaBreck said last week. "I've been in state government for 24 years, and I've never seen it this bad. It has a human toll, and this is the result of this kind of economic downturn." --more--"
Not for everyone, lady!
