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Hamilton Boys and Girls Club may face cuts

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By William Hershey, Staff Writer 8:39 PM Sunday, June 21, 2009

COLUMBUS — They’re scattered across the proposed state budget like casualties on a battlefield.

They’re programs to help the state’s stumbling economy, to keep Ohio’s rivers clean or — in the case of the Boys and Girls Club in Hamilton — to help kids stay safe after school.

Many already have had their funding slashed. Gov. Ted Strickland’s proposal on Friday, June 19, to cut $2.43 billion more from the proposed state budget means more reductions are a certainty as he and state lawmakers scramble to close a $3.2 billion hole in time to come up with a new budget by July 1, start of the new fiscal year. Strickland also has proposed raising about $765 million over two years through video slot machines at the racetracks and other measures.

One example is the Boys and Girls Club in Hamilton.

When Frida Hernandez, 11, goes to the Boys and Girls Club in Hamilton, she likes to swim. Eric Jackson, 10, swims but he also is a basketball player and considers himself a good scorer.

“I like it a lot,” Jackson said of the club.

In the current budget, the state is sending $2 million a year in funds to Boys and Girls Clubs around the state, including Hamilton’s. Strickland’s proposed budget had no money for the clubs but the House put in $1 million a year in state money. The Senate took it out.

Karen Miller, executive director of the Hamilton club, said she had been getting about $103,000 from the state, about 22 percent of her budget. She would have received less — about $50,000 — with the $1 million statewide allotment, but it would have helped, she said.

“This is serious,” Miller said. She said her first choice is to try to find replacement money and the club plans to add a fundraiser to the one it usually holds.

In anticipation that the state money might not be there after June 30, when the current fiscal year ends, Miller said she already had reduced some of the summer offerings, including access to the computer lab.

“I’ve got to start downsizing,” she said.

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