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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Hi Everyone,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">This is just to let you know what our Missouri blind friends are up against.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Susie</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> Gary Wunder [mailto:GWunder@earthlink.net]
<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, March 29, 2012 9:30 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> nfbmo list<br>
<b>Subject:</b> FW: KC Star</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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<hr size="2" width="100%" align="center">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> Murphey, Sam [<a href="mailto:Sam.Murphey@mo.gov">mailto:Sam.Murphey@mo.gov</a>]
<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, March 26, 2012 9:09 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> 'gwunder@earthlink.net'; 'David Ekin'; 'Denny Huff'; 'Chris Gray'; <a href="mailto:rmabry@alphapointe.org">
rmabry@alphapointe.org</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> KC Star</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Just wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to review this article from today’s Kansas City Star. It includes several comments from Chris Gray and presents
our arguments well. Thanks!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Sam</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Budget proposal in Missouri House would eliminate aid for the blind</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Jason Hancock</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">The Star’s Jefferson City Correspondent</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Terrie Arnold feels like Missouri lawmakers are playing political games with her life.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Arnold, 56, and her husband David, 57, were both born blind. He maintains a third-shift job, but she is unable to work due to numerous other medical conditions.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Those pre-existing conditions also keep her from obtaining private insurance, but the Kansas City couple earns too much to qualify for the Medicaid health
care program for the poor.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Arnold must depend upon Missouri's Supplemental Aid to the Blind program.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">"It's the only thing that keeps our head above water," she said. "All of our income would go towards prescriptions."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">The Supplemental Aid to the Blind program pays for medical care for about 2,800 people who earn more than $9,495 a year -- and therefore don't qualify for
Medicaid -- but also receive monthly payments from the state's blind pension fund. They cannot have more than $20,000 in assets and cannot have sighted spouses who work.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">But in the $24 billion budget passed Thursday by the Missouri House, the $28 million health care program for the blind was eliminated. The money instead was
used to avoid another year of cuts to higher education.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">"To them it's all dollars and cents," Arnold said. "But this is about people and their lives. It's really scary."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">The decision by House Republicans to eliminate the program has proved to be the most controversial of the budget drafting process this legislative session
and has turned into a political tug of war between the House and Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat. Its fate in the Senate, where the budget heads next, is still uncertain.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Rep. Ryan Silvey, a Kansas City Republican who is chairman of the House Budget Committee, has said that in a tight budget the state can no longer afford to
provide blind residents medical aid that people who are deaf or paralyzed do not receive.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">"It is completely inconsistent with how we treat any other disability in the state," Silvey said. "All we are going to do is put them on a level playing field
with anyone else with a disability."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">With the state facing a $500 million shortfall and a request by the governor to cut $68 million from higher education, House members were forced to make tough
decisions, he said.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">"If you continue to cut away and cut away and cut away at higher education, before long you start cutting into your educated workforce," Silvey said. "If
you don't have an educated workforce, how are you ever going to dig out of a depressed economy?"</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">House Speaker Steve Tilley, a Perryville Republican and a doctor of optometry, has repeatedly defended the cut.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">"I deal with visually impaired people every day, and I have some concerns," Tilley said. "But at the end of the day, I don't necessarily think they should
be treated significantly differently than the other people who have another disability."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">The House budget does include $6 million for a scaled-down version of the health care program, although $4 million of that total comes from legislation that
has not yet passed that would end a sales tax exemption for newspapers. The idea is to create a smaller program for those who are truly in need.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">It's estimated that $6 million will cover about 600 people.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Christopher Gray, executive director of the Missouri Council of the Blind, said lawmakers are focusing on numbers instead of the impact their decision will
have on people. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">The unemployment rate for the blind is nearly 70 percent, Gray pointed out, and many have other disabilities in addition to blindness that put them at risk
of going uninsured. But the decision to end the program also is fiscally irresponsible, he argued.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">"Not only are these cuts just plain wrong, they will cost the citizens of Missouri tens of millions of dollars because of a $28 million transfer," Gray said.
"The costs will come when blind people who have no more medical benefit are forced to go to emergency rooms for treatment or to move into nursing homes when their support system is pulled out from under them."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Gray added that while the blind are the only disabled people who have this type of benefit, other disabilities have different types of services or Medicaid
waivers that they are eligible for that are not available to the blind. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">"What bothers me about the debate on this program is the attempt by some to alienate the blind from the community of disabled people," he said. "It feels
like a divide-and-conquer mentality."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Nixon has come out strongly against using money from the blind health care program for higher education.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">"Not one college or university president has asked for more funding at the expense of needy, blind Missourians," Nixon said at an event earlier this month
at a Columbia facility that promotes independent living for people with disabilities.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Nixon later demanded that the funding for the program be fully reinstated.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">"We are not negotiating for a half loaf or a portion of this," he said.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">House Democrats also decried eliminating the program, although they split from Nixon in calling for revenue increases -- such as raising the state's lowest-in-the-nation
cigarette tax -- instead of relying solely on cutbacks to balance the budget. </span>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">"If the state has to take away medical care from blind people to pay for its colleges and universities, it is well past time to start looking for new sources
of revenue," said Minority Leader Mike Talboy, a Kansas City Democrat.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">But the governor and Democrats are simply "ramping up the political rhetoric" on this issue, Silvey said, pointing specifically to a radio ad funded by the
Missouri Council for the Blind that began airing last week in Kansas City. </span>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">The ad accuses Silvey of forcing thousands of blind people "to choose between medical services and food."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">In a letter to Nixon, Silvey said he's ready to begin negotiations with the governor on how to "fund both education and welfare" when "you have finished with
your press conferences and campaign rallies."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">"Continuing the assault on education unabated, however, is not an option," Silvey added.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">The 13 bills that make up the state's budget will now go to the Senate. President Pro Tem Rob Mayer, a Dexter Republican, has said his chamber will likely
reverse the cut.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">But Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer, a Columbia Republican, told The Associated Press that it's time that "all programs are looked
at to evaluate who has taken their share of the cuts and who hasn't." </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">If the Senate decides to reinstate the fund, it should be prepared to find corresponding cuts that don't come from higher education, Silvey countered.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Meanwhile, Terrie Arnold said she hopes the cuts in blind services can still be avoided.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">"I really feel like we're being shut out of the process," she said. "It's like this is a game to them and we're just pawns in that game. But I still think
common sense will prevail."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">Read more here:
<a href="http://midwestdemocracy.com/articles/buget-proposal-in-missouri-house-would-eliminate-aid-for-the-blind/#storylink=cpy">
http://midwestdemocracy.com/articles/buget-proposal-in-missouri-house-would-eliminate-aid-for-the-blind/#storylink=cpy</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">###</span></p>
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