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Hunger
Action in the News
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Governor's Budget Has Lawmakers in a Bind February
3, 2003 "The governor has put out his budget and it is up to the Legislature to dispose of it," said Danny Donohue, the statewide president of the Civil Service Employees Association, which represents 265,000 workers in New York. "We will be taking ads, joining with social service and other groups, labor, religious, community groups, the Hunger Action Network, taxpayers groups. This budget scheme does not seem to help anybody." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/03/nyregion/03BUDG.html? =================================================================== Despite deadlines, welfare recipients get cash By
Karen DeWitt Mark Dunlea, with Hunger Action Network, says poor people need a small amount of cash for bus fares and laundromats. And he says Salvation Army stores often charge more than Garage sales or church bazaars for clothing and other items. The average welfare check for a mother with two children is $577 dollars a month. The state and local governments, already earmark a large portion of that money to pay for rent and utilities. The amount that's left for personal expenses can be as little as $20 a month, says Dunlea. He argues that the amount is so small that it's not worth the effort to implement an elaborate system of electronic vouchers. http://nycitizens.org/2002/news/0209-1.html =================================================================== Advocates Mobilize to Revamp Federal Welfare Law Saving
the Safety Net Bich Ha Pham, of the Hunger Action Network and WMAD, describes battles that welfare rights advocates have been facing locally. "During their last legislative session, the City Council passed a transitional-employment bill to create 7500 jobs [over three years] for people in workfare to help them transition from nonpaid workfare assignments to actual temporary jobs, and the mayor vetoed it." www.villagevoice.com/issues/0038/mosley.shtml =================================================================== By KATE BLAIN Assistant Editor Andreas Kriefall gets angry when he sees the following bumper sticker: "Work harder -- millions on welfare are depending on you.""It's vicious and counterproductive," he told The Evangelist -- and added that he believes politicians have only encouraged this negative attitude on the part of their constituents. Mr. Kriefall, who coordinates the Faith and Hunger Network, said that the fastest-growing element in feeding programs around the state are working families. Forced into minimum-wage jobs by welfare requirements, parents often don't earn enough to feed their families -- and without job skills or education, they can't earn more. http://www.global2000.net/evangelist/archive/htm2/0118fahn.htm
Corporate Campaign Contributions Buy Billions in Tax Breaks, Groups Charge http://www.citizenactionny.org/CorpTaxBreaksReport.html Call for Roll Back of Corporate Tax Breaks to Fund Education and Human Services Governor Pataki and members of the New York State Legislature received more than $13 million in corporate campaign contributions from 1999-2001 and awarded $3 billion in corporate tax breaks, according to a new report released today by Citizen Action of New York. "A campaign contribution is the best investment that Wall Street can make. For each dollar contributed, politicians give back far more in tax breaks, tax giveaways, and other forms of corporate welfare," concluded New York State Hunger Action Network organizer Mark Dunlea. "Poor-and-moderate-income people can't afford to make campaign contributions, so politicians don't bother to raise the minimum wage or enact universal health care or child care. It is no wonder that New York has the biggest gap in income in the U.S. between the rich and the poor, and that the U.S. has the biggest gap among industrial countries. Without public campaign financing, New Yorkers will never see economic justice." =================================================================== State of Hunger Decried Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Expecting Gov. George Pataki to paint a rosy picture of the state’s economy during his State of the State speech today, advocates for the poor reminded the public yesterday that 1.5 million New Yorkers cannot afford to feed their families. Standing in front of the Capitol in freezing weather, members of the Hunger Action Network sang parodies of holiday tunes to draw attention to the plight of poor people and called for an increase in the minimum wage, among other changes. One in four children in New York lives in poverty, compared with the national average of one in five, said Mark Dunlea, spokesman for the Hunger Action Network, which held the 11th annual People’s State of the State Rally. http://www.consistentlife.org/State%20of%20Hungry%20Decried.htm |
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