In an attempt to save at least a portion of the money that has been cut from human services in the county budget, the Human Services Coalition has scheduled a rally on the steps of the County Executive Building at 1 West Street in Mineola at noon on Wednesday, Jan. 19 and are asking as many people who can to come out and support this effort to return funding to agencies which are served by the Nassau County Youth Board, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Addiction and the Mental Health and Welfare Council.

Last month Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta directed all departments to cut overall spending in discretionary contracts by 50 percent, which would directly impact the human service agencies that serve the county. This plan would cut $9.8 million from those agencies.

Many of the human service agencies who would be affected protested these cuts shortly after the county executive's directive was announced by holding a rally on the steps of the Supreme Court Building but the agencies are hoping that a larger turnout at the rally on the steps of the building, where the offices of not only Gulotta but all the Nassau County Legislators are located, will have a greater impact.

Since Gulotta issued his directive to the department heads, those departments have in turn had to notify the individual agencies which receive funding from the Youth Board, Department of Drug and Alcohol Addiction and the Mental Health and Welfare Council, how much funding would be cut to each particular agency.

Also being hit by the cuts are school districts which receive funding from the county for preventative measures such as drug and alcohol education. Some school districts are being indirectly affected because the community-based agencies, such as YOM in Levittown and YES in Massapequa provide social workers for the districts. Those social workers may not be available if the cuts go through and the agencies that provide the social workers may have to close their doors.

Although Senior Citizen Services and Day Care were not included in the county executive's planned cuts, those services would also be impacted in agencies where the services are totally dependent upon each other such as YOM. At YOM each service, whether it be day care, seniors programs, youth programs, or drug and alcohol programs pays a portion of the building rent based upon the square footage of the building that the program uses. According to James Edmondson, CEO of YOM, if one of these programs is cut then it takes away a portion of the rent that the agency has come to depend on. He noted that in order to make up for that money staffing or something else would have to be cut from another program.

Agencies which will be affected by the cuts are asking Nassau County residents to come out and show their support for the human service agencies. Many county residents will be affected by these cuts and the Human Service Coalition is hopeful that if enough people protest the decreased funding then the legislators and county executive will back off this plan the way that they repealed the real estate transfer tax.