Budget meetings on Monday and Tuesday...

Next week is shaping up as the time for public comment on the budget. Expect notices to be posted on our calendar at the last minute! You are more than welcome to come down and listen to testimony! Keep checking our Unlock Action Alert page for ways to help...

We dont have any budget items in the '07 budget - our issues are funded in the '08 budget...but just thought you might be interested...

The House Appropriations Human Resources Subcommittee will hold a public hearing on Monday, January 29, 2007 in Room 341 of the State Capitol at 2:00 p.m. or upon adjournment. The subcommittee will hear from individuals and organizations that wish to address the subcommittee with regard to the ’07 amended budget ONLY. Please limit your presentation to 5 minutes and bring 15 copies of a summary of your comments. If your comments are basically the same as others please join them instead of presenting a separate presentation. Sign up sheet is located in 245 State Capitol.

Two other meetings on the Senate that will cover issues in the Department of Community Health...things like ICWP, Source, Katie Beckett, and PeachCare for Kids...

DATE: Tuesday, January 30, 2007
TIME: 8:00 a.m.
PLACE: 450 Capitol
The Senate Community Health Subcommittee will meet to review the FY07 Amended Budget Submissions for the following agencies: Department of Community Health.

DATE: Monday, January 29, 2007
TIME: 10:00 a.m.
PLACE: 450 Capitol
The Senate Community Health Subcommittee will hold Public Hearing to discuss the FY07 Amended and FY08 General Budgets. Anyone requesting to speak before the Subcommittee must register on the sign-up sheet posted outside Room 234 Capitol.

Budget meetings are being set

Today I got a slew of emails from the House Appropriations Committee, setting times and dates for upcoming hearings on the FY07 and FY08 budgets. Primarily our issue lies under three state agency budgets: the Department of Labor (DOL), the Department of Community Health (DCH) and the Department of Human Resources (DHR). We are advocating for increased funding in the FY08 budget. All of these meetings are open to the public, with an opportunity to sign up for public comment.

The Appropriations Human Resources Subcommittee will meet on Thursday, January 25, 2007 in Room 516 of the Coverdell Legislative Office Building at 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. The agenda will be DHR's FY07 budget.

The Appropriations Human Resources Subcommittee will meet on Thursday, January 25, 2007 in Room 516 of the Coverdell Legislative Office Building at 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. The agenda will be DHR – ’07 Amended.

The Appropriations Health Subcommittee will meet on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 in Room 403 of the State Capitol from 2:30 – 4:30 p.m. The agenday will be DCH & Cancer Coalition ’07 Amended Budget Presentation.

The Appropriations Health Subcommittee will hold a public hearing on Thursday, January 25, 2007 in Room 406 of the Coverdell Legislative Office Building at 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. The subcommittee will hear from individuals and organizations that wish to address the subcommittee with regard to the ’07 amended budget. Please limit your presentation to 5 minutes and bring 15 copies of a summary of your comments. If your comments are basically the same as others please join them instead of presenting a separate presentation. Sign up sheet is located in 245 State Capitol. The agenda will be Public Hearing & ’07 DCH & Cancer Coalition.

The Appropriations Health Subcommittee will meet on Thursday, February 1, 2007 in Room 606 of the Coverdell Legislative Office Building at 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. The agenda will be Final recommendations for DCH & Cancer Coalition ’07 Budget.

We will be updating our calendar for you to stay informed. Stay tuned for action alerts to be sent out tomorrow...Your response will be crucial!

Names for members of Senate's subcommittees for DCH and DHR released

Just picked up the list of members that serve on the Senate subcommittees that overseea our budget interests in the Department of Community Health and Humans Resources.

Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Community Health
Greg Goggans - Chair
Cecil Staton - Vice Chair
Tim Golden
William Heath
Eric Johnson
Valencia Seay
Don Thomas
Regina Thomas
Renee Unterman
Tommie Williams

Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Human Development
Renee Unterman - Chair
Don Thomas - Vice Chair
Greg Goggans
Johnny Grant
Steve Henson
Eric Johnson
David Shafer
Valencia Seay
Cecil Staton
Horacena Tate

Rumors of the Calendar

The House will convene today at 1pm and with a lot of committee meetings scheduled around 2pm or upon adjournment - it may be a quick day today.

It is rumored that Rep. Butler's Health subcommittee will take public comment on DHR's budget next week. We understand that they will be taking comment tomorrow on Department of Labor's budget. See our calendar for more details.

The Senate's Education and Youth has cancelled their standing meeting for Tuesday to instead hold a Joint Committee meeting today with the House. This meeting will be at CLOB in Room 606. Sen Weber, the chair of this committee, is trying to set up a replacement meeting for this Thursday, probably around 3pm in CLOB 307 where public comment on SB10 (School vouchers for children with disabilities) might be taken. This meeting has not been confirmed yet, but expect public comment to happen quickly for this bill.

Senator Shafer posted on this blog yesterday that he believes that the Senate will meet every day for the next two weeks - reaching February 2nd as the 14th legislative day.

Check out sidebar for useful sites, resources and links to legislators who are keeping blogs...

Names for Appropriations subcommittee are released

We finally got the names of the members of the subcommittee members for the House. The Senate is still saying "any minute."

The members of the DHR and DCH subcommittees are:

House Appropriations Subcommittee for Health (Community Health, Children and Youth Council and PeachCare: ICWP slots)
Mickey Channell - Vice Chair
Donna Sheldon - Secretary
Mark Burkhalter
Carolyn Hugley
Butch Parrish
Jay Shaw
Richard Smith
Ron Stephens
Pat Gardner

House Appropriations Subcommittee for Human Resources and Labor (DHR Budget Items: Unlock services, Provider rate increases)
Mark Butler - Vice Chair
Jeff May - Secretary
Buddy Carter
Keith Heard
Jerry Keen
Judy Manning
Bobby Reese
Len Walker
Stan Watson

January 2007 Alumni news

I hope 2007 has started off well for your family. Several Partners have sent me notices that they want me to share with you. Please feel free to send me any news you would like me to post.
Cobb county graduate, Sue Joe, recommends a new book called Raymond’s Room, written by Dale DiLeo. See comments from the website below:

Calling people with disabilities society’s “hidden citizens,” he describes a system that prevents people from working and living in our communities, despite new techniques and approaches proven effective in helping even those with the most serious challenges to be employed and to have a home to call their own.

If you live in Macon (January 23), Savannah (February 20), or Albany (March 20), please come out to the Town Hall Meetings on Disability that are going on this winter.

Graduates Nalini Isaac, Mary Poncy, and Rosalyn Horne have been working hard organizing the events in their town and need our support. Partners alumni are making these events a great success across the state. You can contribute by volunteering that night or by sending on the information to others in your email networks.

For a complete listing of dates, times and places, go to: Unlock's website.

Please register for Disability Day quickly, the Governor’s Council is taking only a limited amount of registrations, so please let them know if you are coming. This year they are offering a choice of either attending the breakfast or lunch. They will stop taking reservations after a certain number, so call or go online today! Please see their promotion below.

Register Now for Disability Day at the Capitol - February 22, 2007!
Visit their website or call 1-888-ASK-GCDD

Registration is required for either breakfast OR lunch.
Space is limited and is filling up quickly!
Tickets will be mailed to you prior to the event.

Schedule for Disability Day 2007
9:30 a.m. — Breakfast at the Freight Depot
11:00 a.m. — Rally at the Capitol Steps - Washington Street 12:30 p.m. — Lunch at the Freight Depot

WEAR RED!

Graduate concerns:
Rita Spivey, from Waycross, passed away last month. She was an awesome advocate and friend from South Georgia and will be greatly missed for her winning smile, attitude, and passion for working to better the lives of people with developmental disabilities.

Laura Royal from Vienna, Georgia is gravely ill. If you were in Laura’s class and would like to contact her, please send Rita an email and her contact information will be sent to you.

Governor addresses Joint Committee on Appropriations for House and Senate

The budget process took another step forward as Governor Perdue addressed the Senate and House members of the all important Appropriations Committee moments ago. His presentation leads off opportunities for State agency leadership to present their own budget priorities for their departments - allowing for time from members. Of course, our focus will be on the budgets under Departments of Community Health (DCH) and Human Resources (DHR). Commissioner Rhonda Medows of DCH will present (with her staff) this afternoon and Commissioner BJ Walker of DHR will have her chance tomorrow morning.

In about 30 minutes, the Governor laid out his priorities as education, roads and tourism. Governor Perdue repeated his commitment to education as a 3% pay raise for teachers and state employees. He talked about funding that will be directed to improving Georgia's roads as an investment in preparing for new and supporting existing businesses. Finally, he affirmed his focus on initiatives that focus on fishing and fishing as his "Go Fish Georgia" project. As evidence of the need for this expansion, he cited that Georgia has fewer bass tournaments than our neighboring states.

Following the Governor, the Department of Revenue presented an overview of their initiatives from the last year.

States press Congress for S-CHIP fix

Stateline.org published story on the Peach Care problem...

Georgia predicts that 260,000 of its children will lose health insurance in early March, when the PeachCare program that covers them runs out of money. Congress tried last month to keep such programs going, but as many as 14 states could find themselves short of cash by October if the states don’t receive additional funding for children’s health coverage.

Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island are projected to run out of federal money for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program by May, and they want Congress to fix the problem quickly. But states also want a long-term solution so they won’t have to ask Congress to retool S-CHIP’s funding formulas every year.

Estimates by the Congressional Research Serviceshow that Georgia would only get $1.2 million in extra money from the deal – barely enough to keep PeachCare running for a single day. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that oversees Medicaid, are making the final calculations. Still, Georgia officials aren’t optimistic.

“I am going forward with what I have, which is nothing,” said Dr. Rhonda Medows, who oversees PeachCare as the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health.

She said the only way Georgia could keep PeachCare running is if it put off paying doctors, hospitals and other providers until it got federal money. But Medows said providers “would never come back” if they weren’t paid, which would also harm the state’s Medicaid and state employee health insurance programs.

Congressman Barrow and the survival of Georgia's Peach Care

An appointment to a key House committee could give U.S. Rep. John Barrow, D-Savannah, a voice in trying to bail out Georgia's health care program for some low- and middle-income families, the congressman's office said Thursday.

U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Gainesville, and Charlie Norwood, R-Augusta already serve on this important House Committee.

Barrow, part of the first Democratic majority in the House in a dozen years, has joined the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, his office announced. The panel oversees joint state-federal health care plans like Georgia's PeachCare, which covers children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance.

According to state officials, PeachCare is faced with a shortfall of more than $130 million and could be forced to stop offering coverage as soon as March if Congress doesn't intervene soon. A stop-gap measure approved by Congress last year doesn't offer much relief, they say.

The committee also handles energy policy, trade, telecommunications and consumer protection measures. Barrow said the committee should focus on alternative energy sources such as biofuels, which Georgia officials are looking to promote through incentives.

Contact Congress Barrow and let him know how important PeachCare is to Georgia!
Washington Office: 202.225.2823
Home Office: 706.722.4494
Click here to Email

Also make sure that you contact Congressmen Nathan Deal, R-Gainesville and Charlie Norwood, R-Augusta.

Robin Nash: advocate and friend passed away

Judge Robin Nash died in his home in Decatur Georgia on January 11, 2007. A native of Decatur, Georgia, he was born at Emory Hospital on March 11, 1953. Judge Nash joined the faculty of Emory University School of Law in April, 2006 as director of the Barton Child Law & Policy Clinic. He coordinated the expanded scope of the Barton Clinic by directing the work of the clinic in two main areas, child welfare policy and defense of juveniles charged with delinquent and unruly offenses. Judge Nash came to Emory Law School after retiring as Chief Presiding Judge of DeKalb County Juvenile Court, where he served with distinction from March 1995 to December 2005. He served as the statewide President of the Council of Juvenile Court Judges from 2004-2005. Before becoming a judge, Nash was in private practice for 15 years concentrating on rights of the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled, particularly in the area of deinstitutionalization. Judge Nash graduated Briarcliff High School in 1971. He received his BA in Economics from Emory College in 1975 and his JD from Emory University School of Law in 1978. Judge Nash served on numerous boards and advisory committees during his career, including the DeKalb Bar Association, the Atlanta Foundation for Psychoanalysis, the DeKalb Developmental Disabilities Council, the Georgia Senate Study Committee on State Foster Care and Adoption, the Georgia Independent Living Council, and the Georgia School Age Care Association. He was a 1995 alumnus of Leadership DeKalb and received many awards in recognition of his tireless community service, including the 1995 Bobby Dodd Award from Atlanta Association of Developmental Disabilities, the 2001 Advocate of the Year Award from the Atlanta Association of Developmental Disabilities, and the 2002 Juvenile Court Judge of the Year for the State of Georgia from the Child Placement Conference. In addition to his work in children's law and disability law, Judge Nash was active in the international community, both in Georgia and throughout the world. He volunteered with a number of immigrant and refugee groups in Atlanta and engaged in public service in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Judge Nash is survived by many loving friends, his brother and sister-in-law Bill and Cindi Nash, his nephew Andrew Nash, his niece Melissa Hunt, his godson Sam Barclay and his adopted brother Vincent Thompson. A service will be held on January 21, 2007 at 3pm at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church on the Emory University campus. No flowers please. It is requested that any memorial contributions be made to the Marcus Institute affiliated with Emory University and the Kennedy Krieger Institute or the Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic at Emory University School of Law. A. S. Turner & Sons.