Legal services providers face another yet another blow – following last week’s announcement that the new House Appropriations Committee has proposed a $70 million cut to the Legal Services Corporation (“LSC”) for Fiscal Year 2011. This immediate cut would be catastrophic to the delivery of legal services in Massachusetts because it would mean an 18% reduction in LSC’s annual funding. (Because we are already half way through the current fiscal year, legal services providers tell us this actually translates to a 36% cut.)
There have already been serious reductions in other funding sources upon which LSC-funded programs also depend – especially Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (“IOLTA”). As we noted in a previous post, record low interest rates and reductions in the number of real estate transactions have resulted in dwindling IOLTA revenues.
What the House Appropriations Committee proposed last week is in contrast to what President Obama’s unveiled his budget this week. For Fiscal Year 2012, President Obama actually proposed an increase of $30 million for LSC.
LSC provides grants to independent local programs and currently funds 137 local programs, serving every county and Congressional district in the nation. LSC distributes 97% of the funds it receives to these programs. Massachusetts has four LSC-funded programs: the Volunteer Lawyers Project of the Boston Bar Association, the Massachusetts Justice Project, Merrimack Valley North Shore Legal Services and the New Center for Legal Advocacy.
If this mid-year cut goes through, the entire legal aid delivery system in Massachusetts will suffer. LSC has a big budget battle ahead of it. The BBA has already tried to do its part.
Today (February 17th), BBA President Don Frederico sent every member of the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation a letter urging no cuts in LSC funding. We will also join the American Bar Association in D.C. this April to lobby for funding for Fiscal Year 2012. We urge Congress to adequately fund legal services to provide access to justice for poor people in the United States.
N.B. Some organizations in Massachusetts, such as Greater Boston Legal Services, do not receive LSC funding, and they still need our help. That budget battle – to hold onto level funding – has just begun in the state Legislature. Please be sure to join us next week at Walk to the Hill. The event has been rescheduled for Tuesday, February 22nd at 11:00 AM in the Great Hall at the State House.
-Kathleen Joyce
Government Relations Director
Boston Bar Association
