Sixth Week of the Session

CONTINUED COVERAGE ON UNLOCK IN THE FY07 BUDGET
James Salzer wrote two pieces for the AJC covering the Unlock the Waiting Lists! concerns last week: the first entitled "Critics say Perdue education budget hurts old, disabled," published on Feb 14th, and the other published on Feb 18th, entitled "Perdue shifts funds around: Shortfalls reported in programs for elderly, poor." The point made in both articles was that the Governor's proposed FY07 Budget created a shortfall for disability and aging services by only funding new slots for 6 months rather than 12 months. Furthermore, the articles seemed to draw a connection to the priority the budget placed on education "at the expense" of other issues, such as in this statement from article on the 18th:

Critics claim Perdue moved the money to help fund pay raises and $100 gift cards to defray classroom expenses for Georgia's 100,000 teachers, a politically potent force in every election season. Perdue's office dismissed the critics as Democrats who don't have any ideas for improving education.

Regarding disability supports, it seems that Mr. Salzer's articles have missed the point...rather than pitting one issue against another or focusing on how long services are funded during the first year, it is far more important to examine the number of people the budget will support.

Lets examine only the question of lenght of funding...grant it - the Unlock the Waiting Lists! Campaign is advocating for 1,500 new services for the MRWP (the Governor recommended only 750 services) and 152 new slots for the ICWP (the Governor recommended ZERO ICWP slots!). It is important, however, to remember that our bottom line is people helped rather than months funded in the first year. The number of months funded the first year is not as importand because these are long term supports and therefore once these supports begin, they cannot be taken away from these individuals. The MRWP is funded by individual services such as respite, family support or day support. If we fund 1,500 MRWP services, a person may need more than one of these services; therefore the impact will be that approximately 1,300 people will recieve help. As for the ICWP, these slots are wrap around services and therefore 152 slots will go to 152 people.

Salzer's articles raises concerns that the Governor has recommended only 6 months of funding for 750 services - enough services to take around 600 people off the waiting lists. Is this enough? No and No...We need 1,500 services to keep pace with the growth of the waiting lists and these services should be funded for at least 9 months. Why not 12 months, you ask? If the services are funded for 12 months the first year, the state would experience extra money during that first year. This extra money comes from the fact that if 1,500 services are funded, it is an impossibility for all 1,500 services to be assigned on July 1st or the first day of the state's fiscal year. It will take at least 3 months to match these new services to the most in need - so for the first year, allowing for a natural phase in of these services, the Department of Human Resources will only need 9 months of funding.

Salzer's articles only focused on the length of funding for services, rather than the number of people helped...

I wrote a Letter to the Editor in response to the by Salzer on Feb 14th:

James Salzer’s February 14th article "Critics say Perdue education budget hurts old, disabled" brought much needed attention to the lack of adequate funding in the State budget to address the needs of more than 6,400 people with disabilities who are currently waiting for desperately needed services. We appreciate the commitment of House and Senate budget writers to consider allocating 1,500 new supports for Georgians' with cognitive disabilities and to fund 152 new slots for people with physical disabilities under the Independent Care Waiver Program.

Disability advocates have worked long and hard for this kind of attention and concern. Of late we have new hope because of the support coming from all legislators, without regard to party lines. Helping families struggling to secure needed services offers an opportunity for truly good governance. A vast majority of Georgians believe that we have a clear responsibility to help our most vulnerable families who are in many cases hanging by a thread.

We have enjoyed support from all of these legislators because everyone understands that disability does not choose families by their politics. The solution to this challenge will best come from legislators who set politics aside, and affirm a bipartisan commitment to seek the best for all of us.

We are making progress in our work, legislators from both parties are beginning to understand how important these issues are to everyday people...please help us continue advocating for them to the right thing by going to our Action Alert webpage!

WRAPPING UP THE FY06 BUDGET
The week of February 13th, the sixth week of the session, ended on Thursday with the day 20 in a 40 day long session. The Senate passed their version of the FY2006 supplemental budget with two important changes that will affect adults and children with disabilities. The Senate and House will meet on Monday to work out their differences, and then begin work on the FY2007 budget.

CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES ARE REMEMBERED IN FY06 BUDGET
Three Democratics, Regina Thomas, Ollisteen Miles and David Adelman introduced an amendment to add $3.6 million to continue to pay health costs for more than 1,600 disabled and medically needy children no longer eligible for Medicaid benefits because their families earn too much. This was a very bipartisan effort as evident in the Savannah Now or the Access North Georgia:

Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, D-Albany, said continued coverage was needed because the costs of care for families _ even those with private insurance was "staggering." The price tag for the state is $3.6 million. "I thought you saw a pretty good bipartisan process today," Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack Hill, R-Reidsville, said after the vote.

According to Patty Guthrie's article today entitled "Restoration of kids' Medicaid funds up in air," this money is a great step, but families with children with disabilities are not out of the woods yet. There are still questions about whether children with autism or cancer will be eligible when they reapply. Also, this is money for the current year, it is unclear whether it will be a short term fix only for this year. And even if all of the families concerns are met, it will be weeks before the details are worked out.

ADULTS WITH DISABILITIES ARE REMEMBERED IN FY06 BUDGET
Another victory for people with disabilities was the work done quietly and humbly by Senator Greg Goggans in the Senate to place 10 new slots for the Independent Care Waiver in the FY06 budget. This funding was Senator Goggan's idea and we hope is symbolic of his ongoing support to our issue; however, the most important point is that 10 people who desparately need support will be given that help starting April 2006.

SURVEYS
We were very lucky to have had six volunteers help us continue surveying legislators on their positions - with the new total reaching 71 responses - all of which can be found by going to our Unlock website. We still need your help with this project! If you are able to spend at least 2 hours at the Capitol any time between Monday and Thursday - let us know by sending us an email.