There are two great coalitions around that are working on City and State budget issues, both with much the same name. There's CES which stands simply for the Coalition for Essential Services. That group is focused on City budget issues. Then there's SEPCES which is the Southeast PA Coalition for Essential Services. Both of these were somewhat successful last year in preventing the worst of proposed City and State budget cuts from being implemented. But, as most of you know, substantial cuts were still made. More State budget cuts were made just a week or so ago by Governor Rendell.

The battle is about to stop even deeper cuts in an environment of shrinking revenue. Here are two ideas for improving how those of us involved with the coalitions might improve our lobbying this year and into the future.