[Nfbf-l] Tallahassee: cuts in social services progrqams!

[Kirk]

Hello all, I find this a bit  over the top. I really don't think that 
finding ways to tighten up our years of over spending     should be 
straightened out through our Disabled and Seniors. I any thing, I believe 
that our Children, seniors, and disabled should be set aside for our 
legislators once  they look at our needsto reduce our financial deficit! I 
will be the very first person to agree that we most definitely need to cut 
spending and waste, but not with these three categories of our citizens! I 
hope this will not be approved! I am just passing this information along 
however for all to read as I think it is necessary for all of us to keep 
abreast of how our elected officials are thinking! Your friend in the cause, 
Kirk
OrlandoSentinel.com
Scott would cut range of social-service programs
By Tonya Alanez, Tallahassee Bureau

7:47 PM EST, February 19, 2011






EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier versions of this article misstated how domestic 
violence programs would be affected by Gov. Rick Scott's proposed budget. 
Scott's budget would preserve funding for Florida's 42 certified domestic 
violence centers at their current levels.

TALLAHASSEE - Tough times may get tougher for some of the most vulnerable in 
the Sunshine State if proposals put forward in Gov. Rick Scott's austere 
budget take hold.

Poor elderly and disabled citizens would no longer be provided eyeglasses, 
hearing aids and dentures. Programs that combat homelessness and suicide 
prevention would take a hit. And the state might no longer cover kidney 
dialysis or organ-transplant medication.

"We don't have unlimited dollars," Scott says. With a revenue shortfall 
projected at $3.62 billion, he adds, you have to prioritize.

But social-service advocates say "these are not fluff services."

Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich, D-Weston, calculated that Scott's $65.8 
billion budget would cut nearly $600 million to services to society's most 
vulnerable: the developmentally disabled, the elderly, the medically needy 
and the homeless. She says they are a community already underserved.

"It just runs the gamut of all the critical services that are needed for 
people throughout Florida," Rich said. "There are just certain areas where 
there is no fat in the budget; you are into the bone. We just have to say, 
'Stop!' We can't do this anymore to certain populations."

On the other hand, some services avoided the budget ax entirely. Community 
mental-health and substance-abuse services for adults and children would 
continue to be funded at current levels of about $600 million, said Karen 
Koch, vice president of the Florida Council for Behavioral Healthcare. 
Scott's proposed budget also preserves funding for Florida's 42 certified 
domestic violence centers.

 "We're very excited about the governor's proposed budget," Koch said. "We 
were anticipating cuts. We assumed, along with everybody else, that cuts 
were going to be pretty much across the board, and we were going to be part 
of that."

So far, Scott and his staff have not produced detailed justifications for 
what was cut and what was not.

"What this budget is, it absolutely is a budget that prioritizes," Scott 
said recently. "We pick and choose the areas where we can get the biggest 
bang."

Still, some of the cuts have deeply angered advocates.

For example, Scott would wipe out the $7 million that funded the Office of 
the Homeless, which works with local homeless coalitions to try to create 
programs and shelters for the state's estimated 58,000 homeless. He also 
would end Homelessness Memorial Day, established in 1990 by three national 
organizations, including the National Coalition of the Homeless, on Dec. 21, 
the first day of winter and the longest night of the year. It was written 
into state statutes in 2001 "to bring attention to the tragedy of 
homelessness."

"What we're hearing in the field from Tallahassee is: 'You guys are not a 
priority.' That message has been sent loud and clear," said Laura Hansen, 
chief executive officer of the Coalition to End Homelessness,in Broward 
County.

Ending Homelessness Memorial Day, she said, "strikes me as particularly 
absurd," adding that no state costs were tied to the date.

Also on the chopping block is the Medically Needy's adult program. It has 
been there before.

Scott would save $1 billion during two years by cutting all but physicians' 
services from the adult program as of July 1, 2012; treatments such as 
kidney dialysis and medications for organ-transplant survivors or people 
infected with HIV would not be covered. A sweeping reform of the state's $20 
billion Medicaid program, introduced this week in the Senate, contains a 
similar provision.

The Medically Needy program serves working families who earn too much to 
qualify for Medicaid but who hover around the poverty level after they pay 
for monthly medical expenses because of catastrophic illnesses. As of 
December, 38,500 people were enrolled in the program.

"To me, that's a particularly cruel provision," said Karen Woodall, a 
social-services lobbyist. "It terrifies the population of Medically Needy 
participants every time this Legislature talks about eliminating services, 
which to them are life-threatening if they don't get them."

Slated for elimination is another program that pays for eyeglasses, hearing 
aids and dental work for 35,900 poor seniors and disabled citizens. Axing 
the program would save the state $16.8 million.

"These are not fluff services," Woodall said. "When you're talking about 
somebody getting the kidney dialysis that they need or somebody who needs a 
hearing aid to be able to function properly, it's not a luxury item. It's a 
necessity to their quality of life."

Also affected would be suicide-prevention programs in public schools and 
rape crisis centers. Alzheimer's resource centers would be completely cut, 
and the sexual-predator program would lose $2 million.

The Legislature now has its own prioritizing to do during the 60-day 
legislative session that begins March 8. And some of Scott's numbers seem 
certain to be changed.

"Someone who's homeless would rise to a higher level and tier on my priority 
list," said Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, chair of the human-services-budget 
subcommittee. "My priority is to fund children, and then fund adults, and 
then if someone is on their second or third trip through a substance-abuse 
program, and I understand relapse is a part of recovery, but we may not be 
able to pay for the second and third time.

"I do think the reality is that we are not going to be able to fund 
substance and mental-health services for adults to the extent that we are 
funding them this year."


Kirk Harmon
President & CEO
Florida Disabled Citizens
for Progress
P.O.Box 61794
Jacksonville, FL 32236
pH(904) 783-9896
Cell: (407) 473-2176
DAV/BVA
Life Member

" TURNING HOPE INTO REALITY"