A $16 million cut in the human services budget is profiled in today's Boston Herald, a cut we were told by Governor Deval Patrick, wouldn't be made.
In Gov. Deval Patrick’s budget, Donald Rankins is under line item 1599-6901.Rankins is a $32,000-a-year human services worker, a man who works with mentally ill patients for 10 hours a day at Vinfen Corp. on Commonwealth Avenue.
He drives his clients to doctor appointments, makes sure they take their medications on time and comforts their families when there’s a crisis. “In matters of the heart, supporting people has always been my dream,” Rankins said.
In line item 1599-6901, his dream takes a $16 million cut.
The line item pays for salary increases for the state’s lowest-paid human services workers, people like Rankins who toil every day amid human miseries that make other people turn their heads, or perhaps scribble out a check at Christmastime.
Patrick, who pledged to protect services for the state’s most vulnerable, slashed the salary fund from $28 million to $12 million, sparking outrage from human services advocates.
Not only was Governor Deval Patrick lying to us during his campaign, he was clearly lying to himself.