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Showing posts with label State budgets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label State budgets. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
2020 Georgia
We are excited to be a partner with 2020 Georgia - a new and growing alliance of more than 60 organizations. Our common goal is to promote a balanced approach to Georgia’s fiscal crisis that meets the short and long-term needs of our state and its people. For more information on 2020 Georgia, including its principles, please visit: www.2020georgia.org.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Disability Groups Denounce Budget Cuts at Town Hall Meeting
Groups lose millions in funding for training, transportation
by Joshua Garner, Staff Writer
Gazette.Net, Maryland Community Newspapers Online
December 10, 2009
Prince George's County residents and disability advocates are urging Maryland to put the brakes on budget cuts to programs and services for disabled individuals, saying the cuts are putting extreme hardships on individuals and families dependent on training, transportation and other services.
Nearly 300 residents packed into the Melwood campus, a training facility in Upper Marlboro for the disabled, for a town hall meeting Dec. 3 with representatives from the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration, a state agency that funds community services and support to people with developmental disabilities and their families.
The administration has seen its budget cut by $30 million during the last year as the state looks to alleviate a budget shortfall. The DDA helps fund family and respite organizations, employment programs and residential services, and assists adults with significant disabilities.
The meeting Dec. 3 was one of more than a dozen town hall meetings that had been scheduled across the state to address what advocates call a growing problem for individuals with disabilities as services such as transportation, employment, training and therapy have all had their funding scaled back or cut completely.
Residents pleaded with politicians and state officials that funding for the DDA is essential to their way of life. Others said the strain left by cuts in services is tearing their families apart and forcing them to make tough decisions relating to their care.
More than 19,000 state residents who have disabilities and are in need of services are on the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Community Services waiting list.
Prince George's County is second only to Montgomery County with the highest number of individuals on the waiting list, with 2,953 as of June, according to the DDA. The number represents a 134 percent increase from 2004.
Dorma Rodriguez of Bowie said cuts to the services she received meant she had to decide between speech therapy and physical therapy for her 8-year-old daughter, Gabby, who has cerebral palsy.
"I need to pay for my daughter's therapy," she said.
Other complained the waiting list, which also provides housing for the disabled, should be shortened to relieve pressure from the aging parents of older disabled individuals.
"This is a devastating cut; unfortunately, when the governor went in, he had to make cuts," said Del. Tawanna Gaines (D-Dist. 22) of Berwyn Heights. "Many of their people have been in their parents' homes all their lives."
Bill Ohge of Largo said that housing for the disabled should be better integrated with communities and not isolated.
"People should be living in the community with a house of their own," he said. "[Disabled] people need to be living in the community," he said.
Michael Chapman, executive director of the Developmental Disabilities Administration, urged residents to be patient, saying that economic pressures have caused constrictions in funding for the DDA. Chapman said it could be another seven to 10 years before the state is in a position to expand the administration's programs, and that things will get worse before they better.
"Next year's budget looks worse. There is not a day that goes by that we don't think about [those affected by the cuts]," he said. "We're trying to understand the needs of people in this state."
E-mail Joshua Garner at jgarner@gazette.net.
http://www.gazette.net/stories/12102009/lanhnew173125_32580.php
Copyright © 2009 Post-Newsweek Media, Inc./Gazette.Net
by Joshua Garner, Staff Writer
Gazette.Net, Maryland Community Newspapers Online
December 10, 2009
Prince George's County residents and disability advocates are urging Maryland to put the brakes on budget cuts to programs and services for disabled individuals, saying the cuts are putting extreme hardships on individuals and families dependent on training, transportation and other services.
Nearly 300 residents packed into the Melwood campus, a training facility in Upper Marlboro for the disabled, for a town hall meeting Dec. 3 with representatives from the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration, a state agency that funds community services and support to people with developmental disabilities and their families.
The administration has seen its budget cut by $30 million during the last year as the state looks to alleviate a budget shortfall. The DDA helps fund family and respite organizations, employment programs and residential services, and assists adults with significant disabilities.
The meeting Dec. 3 was one of more than a dozen town hall meetings that had been scheduled across the state to address what advocates call a growing problem for individuals with disabilities as services such as transportation, employment, training and therapy have all had their funding scaled back or cut completely.
Residents pleaded with politicians and state officials that funding for the DDA is essential to their way of life. Others said the strain left by cuts in services is tearing their families apart and forcing them to make tough decisions relating to their care.
More than 19,000 state residents who have disabilities and are in need of services are on the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Community Services waiting list.
Prince George's County is second only to Montgomery County with the highest number of individuals on the waiting list, with 2,953 as of June, according to the DDA. The number represents a 134 percent increase from 2004.
Dorma Rodriguez of Bowie said cuts to the services she received meant she had to decide between speech therapy and physical therapy for her 8-year-old daughter, Gabby, who has cerebral palsy.
"I need to pay for my daughter's therapy," she said.
Other complained the waiting list, which also provides housing for the disabled, should be shortened to relieve pressure from the aging parents of older disabled individuals.
"This is a devastating cut; unfortunately, when the governor went in, he had to make cuts," said Del. Tawanna Gaines (D-Dist. 22) of Berwyn Heights. "Many of their people have been in their parents' homes all their lives."
Bill Ohge of Largo said that housing for the disabled should be better integrated with communities and not isolated.
"People should be living in the community with a house of their own," he said. "[Disabled] people need to be living in the community," he said.
Michael Chapman, executive director of the Developmental Disabilities Administration, urged residents to be patient, saying that economic pressures have caused constrictions in funding for the DDA. Chapman said it could be another seven to 10 years before the state is in a position to expand the administration's programs, and that things will get worse before they better.
"Next year's budget looks worse. There is not a day that goes by that we don't think about [those affected by the cuts]," he said. "We're trying to understand the needs of people in this state."
E-mail Joshua Garner at jgarner@gazette.net.
http://www.gazette.net/stories/12102009/lanhnew173125_32580.php
Copyright © 2009 Post-Newsweek Media, Inc./Gazette.Net
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Report Outlines Deep Cuts If Oregon Tax Measures Fail
By Frank Mungeam and AP Staff
December 1, 2009
SALEM, Ore. -- A new, 100-page report released by the state of Oregon details potential budget cuts if two tax measures are not passed in a January 26, 2010 special election.
Measures 66 and 67 would raise taxes on businesses and high-income households.
Proponents of the pair of tax measures say they will generate $733 million dollars in revenue. If those tax measures fail, a wide range of programs face cuts to make up a projected shortfall in the state budget.
Among the projected cuts: more than 15,000 seniors with disabilities would lose Oregon Health Plan coverage; 3,000 families with two unemployed parents would lose monthly payments; and the Department of Corrections would close three prisons and release 1,600 inmates.
One of the hardest-hit agencies would be the Department of Human Services. The department outlined 16 pages of proposed cuts to make up a 5 percent budget shortfall.
Schools, universities, prisons, state police and courts could all be cut, lawmakers said Monday after releasing the report.
The Legislative Fiscal Office, the Legislature's budget experts, compiled the list from proposals submitted by state agencies for cuts of 5 percent and 10 percent of their current two-year budgets.
"These cuts on top of $2 billion in cuts we made earlier this year would do great harm to our schools, our colleges and universities, and to core services that Oregonians are relying on in these tough times," said House Speaker David Hunt, a Democrat from Gladstone.
But a spokesman for the opposition campaign said the list was compiled to influence the election, which will be Jan. 26.
"It's an effort to create a disaster scenario that says if these measures do not pass, the world as we know it will come to an end," said Pat McCormick of Oregonians Against Job-Killing Taxes.
The $733 million that would be raised if voters approve Measures 66 and 67 amounts to about 5.5 percent of the $13.3 billion state general fund budget.
The tax increases would fall on households earning more than $250,000 on a joint return, or $125,000 for a single filer, and corporations netting more than $250,000.
Small businesses have objected to the restructured corporate minimum tax, which would be raised from $10 to at least $150 and as high as $100,000 on businesses with $100 million in Oregon sales.
Budget cuts could also affect college students by increasing tuition and forcing colleges to cut professors and staff.
Republican Nick Smith labeled the projected cuts "scare tactics" designed to convince voters to approve the tax increases.
http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Report-outlines-deep-cuts-if-Ore-tax-measures-fail-78223297.html
http://www.kgw.com/
Newsxchannel 8
Portland, Oregan
Copyright 2009 KGW.
December 1, 2009
SALEM, Ore. -- A new, 100-page report released by the state of Oregon details potential budget cuts if two tax measures are not passed in a January 26, 2010 special election.
Measures 66 and 67 would raise taxes on businesses and high-income households.
Proponents of the pair of tax measures say they will generate $733 million dollars in revenue. If those tax measures fail, a wide range of programs face cuts to make up a projected shortfall in the state budget.
Among the projected cuts: more than 15,000 seniors with disabilities would lose Oregon Health Plan coverage; 3,000 families with two unemployed parents would lose monthly payments; and the Department of Corrections would close three prisons and release 1,600 inmates.
One of the hardest-hit agencies would be the Department of Human Services. The department outlined 16 pages of proposed cuts to make up a 5 percent budget shortfall.
Schools, universities, prisons, state police and courts could all be cut, lawmakers said Monday after releasing the report.
The Legislative Fiscal Office, the Legislature's budget experts, compiled the list from proposals submitted by state agencies for cuts of 5 percent and 10 percent of their current two-year budgets.
"These cuts on top of $2 billion in cuts we made earlier this year would do great harm to our schools, our colleges and universities, and to core services that Oregonians are relying on in these tough times," said House Speaker David Hunt, a Democrat from Gladstone.
But a spokesman for the opposition campaign said the list was compiled to influence the election, which will be Jan. 26.
"It's an effort to create a disaster scenario that says if these measures do not pass, the world as we know it will come to an end," said Pat McCormick of Oregonians Against Job-Killing Taxes.
The $733 million that would be raised if voters approve Measures 66 and 67 amounts to about 5.5 percent of the $13.3 billion state general fund budget.
The tax increases would fall on households earning more than $250,000 on a joint return, or $125,000 for a single filer, and corporations netting more than $250,000.
Small businesses have objected to the restructured corporate minimum tax, which would be raised from $10 to at least $150 and as high as $100,000 on businesses with $100 million in Oregon sales.
Budget cuts could also affect college students by increasing tuition and forcing colleges to cut professors and staff.
Republican Nick Smith labeled the projected cuts "scare tactics" designed to convince voters to approve the tax increases.
http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Report-outlines-deep-cuts-if-Ore-tax-measures-fail-78223297.html
http://www.kgw.com/
Newsxchannel 8
Portland, Oregan
Copyright 2009 KGW.
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