[NFBMT] Urgent: Addressing funding cuts and the need for a special legislative session

Tue Oct 31 16:46:30 UTC 2017

Hello, fellow NFB of Montana members.

Attached and below is a document containing talking points to keep in mind
when advocating for a special session with your state legislator.  Below that
is a link to find your legislator's contact information.

Talking Points

Support for Blind and Low Vision Services

National Federation of the Blind of Montana

October 31, 2017

For more information, please contact NFB-MT President Joy Breslauer.  She can
be reached at 406-454-3096 or breslauerj at gmail.com.

What is the National Federation of the Blind of Montana?

The National Federation of the Blind of Montana (NFB-MT) encourages Blind
Montanans to live the lives we want.  We are the blind speaking and acting
for ourselves.  The NFB-MT seeks a well-funded, self-directed Blind and Low
Vision Services (BLVS).  We believe that blind Montanans of all ages require
highly-specialized services to advance our educational needs, career goals,
and economic and social independence.  Therefore, our advocacy centers on
keeping BLVS as a separate program which concentrates its professional
expertise on the unique nonvisual strategies and adaptive technology
necessary for our success.  In addition, we urge Montana's leaders to fund
BLVS at levels that assure the continuance of these high-quality
indispensable services.  We are deeply concerned about the budget crisis
Montana faces, and the disproportionate impact it will have on the lives of
blind Montanans.  We ask that the Montana Governor and legislature hold a
special session to work together to respond to this budget crisis.

What is Blind and Low Vision Services?

BLVS is part of the Vocational Rehabilitation and Blind Services program in
the Disability Employment and Transitions Division of the Montana Department
of Public Health and Human Services, DPHHS.  BLVS offers vocational and
independent living services to blind Montanans.  They serve Montana from four
regional offices.  Each office employs a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor,
an Orientation and Mobility Specialist, a Vision Rehabilitation Therapist,
and their Support Staff.  Each Counselor, specialist, or therapist has a
master's degree in their field of expertise.  These professionals serve
individuals either from their regional offices or by traveling to the
communities and homes of those they serve to assure statewide coverage.
Examples of their services include engagement of an Individual Plan for
Employment, (IPE), in which the participant's vocational goal is achieved
through a variety of customized services such as higher education, assistive
technology, and instruction in alternative nonvisual techniques.  Also, BLVS
provides Independent Living Services for the Older Blind, employment
opportunities through the Business Enterprise Program, informational services
through NFB Newsline, and various other services designed to help blind
Montanans access jobs and participate fully and independently in community
life.

What is the Order of Selection?

BLVS currently accepts no new clients for its vocational services, because
the demand for vocational rehabilitation services exceeds the resources of
the program.  Currently, new applicants for services will languish on a
waiting list with extremely limited service options until the program's
resources increase enough to serve them.  The Rehabilitation Act as amended
by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act labels this circumstance as
an Order of Selection, the legally required process to assure that vocational
rehabilitation funding goes first to those with the most significant
disabilities.  The shortage of resources is the result of more people seeking
services, as well as new services for youth, for those with the most
significant disabilities, and for business owners and employers.  The federal
government requires sweeping changes in national public vocational
rehabilitation policy, most of which are wonderfully beneficial and needed,
but which include no additional funding to cover the increasing demand for
these new and traditional services.  BLVS offers no prediction of when
vocational rehabilitation services can be re-opened.  Other programs within
BLVS are not affected by the Order of Selection. The vocational
rehabilitation waiting lists impose a severe and undue burden on hundreds of
blind Montanans.  Since this unfortunate circumstance was not caused by the
state's budget crisis, but by the increased demand for services, BLVS enters
the state budget crisis with an already compromised fiscal status.

What are the budget cuts already implemented for the next two years?

The proposed Montana budget cuts come directly on the heels of significant
cuts to BLVS.  BLVS already significantly reduced its state funding, funding
that's used to match federal money at a ratio of 21.3% state and 78.7%
federal dollars.  This means that state cuts also reduce the federal dollars
available to operate BLVS; for every reduced state dollar, BLVS loses 4
federal dollars.  These existing cuts have resulted in hiring freezes, travel
limitations for staff, and decreased supply purchases.  One of the
consequences of both the current and proposed budget cuts is the harsh and
possibly illegal oversite by DPHHS leaders.  , including pre-approval of
individualized vocational plans and services.  DPHHS Director Sheila Hogan
will not allow services to proceed without her approval or the approval of
her designees, none of whom have any training in vocational rehabilitation
services.  Since this oversite will not improve services, its only purpose is
to contain expenses.  This system may control costs and frighten staff to
conserve spending, but it also undermines federal rules by negating the
relationship between clients and their BLVS Counselors.  At this time, due to
the substantial budget cuts and possibly illegal fiscal controls, BLVS is
paralyzed, and blind Montanans experience denials and delays of the
reasonable and necessary services we depend upon to attain our educational
and vocational goals.

What are the proposed budget cuts?

Governor Steve Bullock proposes more cuts that include:

. Additional hiring freezes;

.Increased vacancy savings requirements, which reduce funding for hiring and
retaining staff members;

. Additional limitations for staff travel and supply purchases, including
travel to conferences for the procurement of continuing educational units;

. Closure of Vocational Rehabilitation and Blind Services offices in Bozeman,
Hamilton, and Polson;

. Elimination of multiple programs, including Orientation and Mobility
Instruction for Blind Children, the Montana Youth Leadership Forum, and
Montana Youth Transitions; and,

. Cuts in other human services such as Medicaid and Workforce Development
that supplement BLVS.

How do the budget cuts affect the separate function of BLVS?

When BLVS must operate under such extreme fiscal constraints, other
behind-the-scene changes deny or limit vital services.  Montana state law
requires a stand-alone BLVS that may be administered as a combined blindness
and general disability agency.  Since BLVS serves smaller numbers than does
its sister general disability counterpart, additional consolidation of BLVS
into the general agency almost certainly will occur.  No specific changes
have yet been proposed, but already, BLVS staff are serving clients who are
not blind in order to respond to the larger agency burdens of smaller staff
numbers and reduced funding.  The danger we face is losing our unique and
proven blindness services.  For the blind, consolidation of programs means
that we will not receive what we must to live the lives we want.  WE rely on
highly specialized professional services, and these services cannot be
adequately delivered from a one-size-fits-all service delivery system.  In
fact, no private infrastructure exists for services similar to those of BLVS,
thus making BLVS the sole source of services for blind Montanans.  Therefore,
the NFB-MT calls on state leaders to sustain its decades of support for a
stand-alone BLVS.

Why the NFB-MT calls for a special session of the Legislature?

The NFB-MT asks state leaders to convene a special session of the Legislature
to deal with the budget crisis.  We encourage all options to be on the table,
including reducing state government expenses which do not directly affect
those who benefit from state programs, and raising state revenues to offset
Montana's increasing expenses.  The NFB-MT believes that Governor Bullock
should not make these highly-charged budget decisions on his own, and that
both the executive and legislative branches should work together to find
solutions.  Undeniably, the cuts --- existing and proposed --- will hurt
Montana's citizens.  A special session would do much to ease the pain blind
Montanans face.  Our futures depend on Montana doing the right thing by
funding essential programs well enough to support quality program outcomes.
The self-determination and self-reliance of blind Montanans is at stake.
Blind Montanans have nowhere else to turn for the kind of services BLVS
provides, and that's why holding a special legislative session to address the
budget crisis and the quality and availability of BLVS services, as well as
preserving the autonomy of BLVS, is so important to us.

How to wrap up?

Be sure to 

.express gratitude for the services, including those you've personally
received and on behalf of others;

. Tell short personally relevant stories to illustrate these talking points;

. Avoid taking a stand that is partisan in nature, that is, either speaking
solely from a Republican or Democratic viewpoint;

. Encourage collaboration and leadership from your Montana Representative or
Senator; and,

. Ask for the special session.

 <http://leg.mt.gov/css/find%20a%20legislator.asp> Montana Legislature: Find
a Legislator

Joy Breslauer, President

National Federation of the Blind of Montana 

Web Site: http://www.nfbofmt.org <http://www.nfbofmt.org/> 

Live the life you want

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.

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