poor

The Essential Services Coalition held a press conferences presenting the cuts and tax increases  in the budget passed by the city council for FY 2010.

Above you will hear the concerns of our city's residents about a budget that raises sales taxes, cuts library hours, summer jobs for youth, and charges for care at city health centers. They state that this budget is being balanced on the backs of the city's workers, and with the well being of city's poor abandoned.

When we live in a society where it's more expensive to live if you're poor than if your rich, we have a serious problem. The Wasington Post recently did a piece entitledThe High Cost of Povertywhich explains how the poorer you are, the more you have to pay to live.

You have to be rich to be poor.

While in Baltimore,members of Labor Justice Radio spoke to Maria Alwine of the Maryland Coalition for Baltimore Gas and Electric Reregulation. In this interview, Alwine explains that since deregulation, gas and electric fees have more than doubled and currently 84,000 Baltimore households are slated to have utilities shut-off. Alwine also discusses the organizing people are doing to get Baltimore Gas & Electric re-regulated.