Dozens speak against proposed cuts to family support services

CARSON CITY -- Tearful moms with fidgeting babies lined up Friday in Carson City and Las Vegas to defend a program that helped them with everything from making healthy baby food to calming fussy infants.

The Family to Family program, which served more than 7,000 Nevadans in 2010, faces cuts in Gov. Brian Sandoval's proposed budget.

With the sound of crying babies as a backdrop in typically quiet committee rooms, the women told stories they hoped would humanize for lawmakers the potential fallout of the governor's proposal to "zero out" funding for the program.

"When my husband had an affair, moved out and told me he no longer wanted to be a father, it was my friends from Family to Family who told me they would help me," Ingrid Briggs testified from Las Vegas. "I was able to face and conquer the challenges of being a single parent."

The program operates from 21 locations around Nevada and serves parents of children from birth to 4 years old.

The goal is educating parents, many of whom cannot afford day care and live removed from extended family, on healthy ways to cope with parenting.

Family to Family staff and volunteers help parents with everything from making healthy baby food to teaching infants to rest peacefully in bed and advising how to cope with family trauma.

"Without this safety net to fall back on, the emotional toil can lead to isolation, neglect and abuse," said Carolyn Wheeler, a Family to Family board member from Las Vegas.

Proponents say families that don't get needed help can end up burdening other public programs later, such as schools and child protection services.

"That is a very big gamble to take," Wheeler said.

Under Sandoval's budget the program, which spent about $2.5 million in 2009-11, would remain an item in the 2011-13 budget but with no funding attached.

In fiscal year 2010, the program served more than 7,100 adults who collectively made about 31,000 visits.

Two other programs, Family Resource Centers and the Differential Response Program, didn't face similar cuts. Those programs don't have the same offerings and would need to cut services to clients to assume Family to Family duties.

Witnesses at the hearing before the Legislature's joint subcommittee on human services weren't optimistic that other programs could fill the void left if Family to Family were to lose funding.

Tracy White, 34, of Reno testified that Family to Family helped get her youngest son, Gabriel, 9 months, to rest quietly in bed.

"There is no screaming in our house at night thanks to the baby calming techniques I didn't have with my first two," White said.

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said the loss of the program would have a detrimental effect in Las Vegas and rural communities. He said funding for the program is money well spent.

"I would dare anyone to visit one of these facilities and tell me there is fat or there is excess," Horsford said. "Once you take this away, there will be nothing left for those families."

Sandoval has promised to balance the state budget without raising taxes. To do so, he recommended spending from the general fund be limited to $5.8 billion for the upcoming two-year period.

The result is a budget that includes steep cuts to education, social services and wages for everyone from the governor to the lowest-ranking state workers.

If Horsford and legislative Democrats want to approve a budget that raises taxes or makes changes Sandoval doesn't like, they would need a two-thirds majority, which would require Democratic unanimity plus three Senate and two Assembly Republicans.

While Sandoval has worked to dissuade Republican lawmakers from joining any effort to raise taxes, he has encouraged them to move money around beneath the $5.8 billion spending goal to fund programs they think are important.

"In spite of reductions to the Family to Family program, we believe there are other agencies to provide those services at the local level," Sandoval spokeswoman Mary-Sarah Kinner said. "Given their resources, we believe the local agencies are a good provider of those services."

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@
reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.