Women respond to Gov. Walker’s budget proposals

Many people have weighed in on Gov.Scott Walker’s proposed budget, but what about the people who will be most affected by the cuts to health care, education and child care?

Women have been protesting the Walker budgets since February – at the Capitol, at school board meetings and at reproductive health clinics across the state. They have made it known that they will not accept the governor’s plan to cuts funding to day care, health coverage for families, or the elimination of education programming.

Last week, the working women’s organization 9 to 5 held a panel forum moderated by former Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton. Assemblywoman Sandy Pasch (D-Whitefish Bay), Torrie Moffit, a working mother from 9 to 5, Molly Swank representing Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin and Sarah Demonte Vegas from I Love my Public School discussed how the proposed cuts will affect their families, friends and other women across the state.

State Senator Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) was invited to the forum, but did not attend. The senate was in session at the time of the meeting.

An audience of women, men, elderly, and young of all political stripes filled the day care center at Kingo Lutheran Church in Shorewood.

Working from the premise that 40 percent of Walker’s proposed budget cuts will be to programs primarily serving women, girls and children, the panel shared their personal experiences with W-2, Wisconsin Shares, BadgerCare, reproductive services and educational programming. Lawton described the governor’s budget as an “attack on the human and economic infrastructure in the state,” and suggested that if the state “gets it right for women, all boats will rise which is essential for a sound economy and stable society.”

Rep. Pasch didn’t have good news from Madison. She described the $20 cut to the current $673 monthly W-2 stipend, caps on FamilyCare enrollments and $1 billion in cuts from K-12 education as adding up to a mean-spirited budget.

“This budget doesn’t give a hand up, it is punishing,” she said. “This budget will not have a good outcome for the women of Wisconsin. As a nurse, the indicator of a good outcome is not to be in poverty.”

Pasch said that Walker and her Republican colleagues are eager to say they are not increasing taxes, but added that the cuts are increasing the burden on the poorest and most vulnerable. Cuts to the Earned Income Credit punishes working parents by eliminating an incentive to work, the elimination of the Homestead Credit punishes elderly homeowners and low-income heads of households, and the reduction in W-2 is a tax on all recipients, according to Pasch.

Moffit shared a personal story of being able to pull herself up with the help of w-2, BadgerCare, Wisconsin Shares and educational funding. As a  single parent with two children, Moffit says the programs helped her find a home, receive childcare and get an education to improve her lot in life. By this time next year, Moffit will have a Bachelor’s degree in Human Services and Criminal Justice from UW-Milwaukee due to the aid she received from the state.

But Moffit sees her good fortune and the opportunities she enjoyed as a thing of the past. She describes W-2’s new requirement that recipients must work a job to get the $653 a month, instead of pursuing an education as a return to a cycle of poverty.

“It doesn’t say a quality job, just ‘go get a job and get off our rolls.’ That money along with a job at McDonald’s will barely pay the rent on a decent apartment and the WE Energies bill. Where’s the money for tissue, for food? And there will be no phone, because you won’t be able to afford it,” Moffit said.

Weighing in on health and reproductive care, Swank explained that 97 percent of the services provided by Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin are diagnostic and preventative, such as cervical, breast and prostate cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment, contraceptive prescriptions and basic health care services. However, many people are convinced that their tax dollars are providing abortions through the clinics, including one woman in the audience who angrily challenged Swank to prove PPWI doesn’t do so.

Pasch and Swank answered in unison, noting that both state and federal guidelines do not allow the use of taxpayer dollars for abortions. Instead, they reiterated the money is used for cancer screenings and other reproductive health services, which keeps people healthy and is good for the economy.

Swank said while much of their services for women will be reduced, the budget completely eliminates the care PPWI and other reproductive health clinics have been providing to men. Lawton described the short-sightedness of this cut as policy leaders thinking STDs only occur in women by “immaculate infection.”

Demonte Vegas is a resident of Glendale who has chosen to send her children to MPS’s La Escuela-Fratney School, the district’s bi-lingual English-Spanish facility. After living abroad for 10 years, the family returned to Wisconsin for the excellent public schools. But that excellence didn’t last, and next year when Walker’s education cuts kick in, the Demonte Vegas children will attend a school with 30 students in a classroom, no art, music or gym instruction, no library access and no breakfasts for low-income students.

“We have one of the best bi-lingual libraries in the state,” Demonte Vegas said. “And for most of the students the breakfast is the best meal they get all day.”

She added that students in need of nursing care – diabetics, asthmatics and others – will no longer be able to attend La Escuela Fratney because the school nurse is no longer supported.

“This is not what I signed up for,” Demonte Vegas said. “We need to see what we want the end to be, and this budget doesn’t look like what I want to see.”

Pasch added that the state can’t cut education, health and social programs and expect the economy to grow. “Instead of raising the level to the best schools, we seem to want to lower schools to the bottom. Instead of helping the sick and young early, we’ll have sicker people in the ERs or in the criminal justice system. We spend $30,000 to $100,000 per inmate in this state but so much less on early childhood education.”

In the end, each panelist said we all need to make priorities, just like we do every day in our homes and businesses. We need to think creatively, talk to each other and share our ideas with our neighbors and legislators.

“You need to make them know if you do or don’t agree with what they are doing,” Moffit said, encouraging the audience to contact their elected officials to have their voices heard. “If you don’t say anything… if we don’t talk to them, they won’t know either. We need to let them know.”