That is exactly what happened - and this year doesn't look any better.

We really need your help. Please step up and do whatever you can. The power of our union to influence the budget process is entirely up to you.

In addition to our battle with the budget, we will also be fighting a group of legislators who will be targeting municipal pension funds for massive and damaging changes. As we continue our work on the budget, we must also deal with this challenge to our pension benefits.

The combination of bad choices on last year’s budget, coupled with the politics of an election year in 2010, spells disaster for this year’s budget.

Of course, we are also looking ahead to our contract negotiations, so we must lay the ground work for that fight as well.

So what do we need to do?

We need to ramp up our Human Services Campaign to meet the challenges we are facing right now in the budget cycle.

We need to start educating the voters of Pennsylvania, the people we serve every day, about the need to restore some of the drastic cuts in human services funding that are part of the new budget.

We also need to make sure that the citizens of Pennsylvania understand the importance of the work we do.

To get that message out, we have begun airing radio ads with members telling about the jobs they do and the people they serve.

SEIU Local 668 will lead the way by continuing our Human Services Campaign because that is the only way we can be sure that our needs, and the needs of the citizens and taxpayers we serve, will be met.