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Jim Ercolano knows what it's like to be poor.

His father left the family when Mr. Ercolano was an infant in the 1960s; his mother raised three children - staying home with them because of his severe asthma - through public assistance and help from her parents.

And that's when public assistance was more generous, Mr. Ercolano said, adding: "I can't even begin to imagine what people - especially families - must be going through now."

On March 8, the parishioner of St. Pius X Church in Loudonville will join up to 1,000 fellow Catholics from across New York State at the annual Public Policy Day at the State Capitol.

They will ask state lawmakers to:

• protect the poor through assistance, affordable housing and child care and more;

• preserve Catholic schools;

• make abortion rare;

• maintain healthcare coverage for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers;

• ensure that healthcare workers' conscience protection rights are protected;

• reform the juvenile justice system; and

• preserve the traditional understanding of marriage.

Participants will also gather for Mass at the recently reopened Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany for the first time since 2000.

POVERTY
Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed $132.9 billion state budget would cut spending on both Medicaid and education aid while also cutting the budgets of state offices that serve children and families, the mentally and physically disabled, those out of work and more.

The Governor says the plan reduces the state's estimated $10 billion deficit without raising taxes, a challenge that will likely cut almost all areas of state government and spending.

"The situation is more dire than it was last year," agreed Dennis Poust, director of communications for the New York State Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state's bishops.

However, he urged Gov. Cuomo to remember the poor. "We are one year deeper into an economic crisis that is making a painful situation even more painful for the poor and vulnerable and Catholic school parents," Mr. Poust told The Evangelist.

This year, the Catholic Conference wants safe and affordable housing and supports for the unemployed, including education, training and public transportation.

At the policy day, Catholics will also advocate to push through an increase in the public assistance grant, which has been delayed so far.

"You can't live on the amount that these folks are being asked to live on," Mr. Poust argued. In July 2010, the average public assistance grant was $353 per month.

"We're not asking for great increases in spending," he continued. "We're just saying, 'Don't do any further harm.'"

EDUCATION
On the education front, Catholic Conference officials said that the state still owes Catholic schools more than $260 million in state-mandated reimbursements.

In addition, Catholics are frustrated that lawmakers support school choice for public charter schools but not independent ones, and education tax credits for Catholic school parents are still not an option.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York honed in on these issues last week when he gave testimony at the joint legislative hearing on the education portion of the budget.

The document also proposes an 8 percent reduction in aid to religious and independent schools, but only a 7.3 percent reduction in aid to public schools.

Last year, a similar inequity was revised before the budget was passed, said Sister Jane Herb, IHM, superintendent of schools for the Albany Diocese. Catholics at the policy day will advocate for the state to acknowledge its debts and to make all education cuts equitable.

Meanwhile, enrollment in Catholic schools throughout the state continues to decline.

"We have to continue to work. Be persistent," Sister Jane advised participants at the Public Policy Day. "Speak on the voice of our children and families in our Catholic schools. It's a matter of justice."

It's also a matter of money. Religious and independent schools educate nearly 500,000 children and save taxpayers $8.5 billion every year, Mr. Poust said. School choice and competition prevents urban flight and helps maintain the tax base that funds public schools.

HEALTH CARE
The Church remains the largest private provider of health care and human services in the state, making access and reform to health care a consistent issue at the policy day.

Gov. Cuomo seeks savings on the Medicaid program, yet the ranks of uninsured in the state have risen by more than 100,000 people in recent years, according to the Catholic Conference.

The Catholic Conference also opposes the Reproductive Health Act, which it says would make radical changes to state abortion law - making it a fundamental right, undermining conscience protection in current law and ensuring that abortions are legal throughout all nine months of pregnancy.

Further, Mr. Poust said, New York State would receive immediate savings of $45 million a year if funding for abortion were eliminated.

Mr. Ercolano has been attending Public Policy Day for seven years; he told The Evangelist that he was able to speak directly with a state representative 90 percent of the time. He publishes a monthly article at his parish on Catholic social teaching.

"I read verse after verse in the Gospel and the Old Testament. You constantly see reference after reference concerning the poor, the widows and the orphans," he said.

Uniquely, he noted, the New York State Constitution mandates that state government care for the poor. In the current economic crisis, said Mr. Ercolano, "you actually feel even more inspired and compelled to speak up for those people and issues and needs which are basically voiceless and silent."

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