[Tall-Corn] Legislative updates

Tue Apr 9 02:43:03 UTC 2019

Good Evening Fellow Federationists:

I tried to send this out last week, but it wouldn't let the attachments
through, so I will copy and paste Director Whartons message below which has
links to the items mentioned. The IDB budget is our main concern, but some
of us may be interested in the guardianship issue too. Please feel free to
contact your legislators on either or both of these items as you see fit.
Thanks!

Hello affiliate presidents and legislative chairs.  

Our IDB appropriation  is now part of HF758. I'll paste the link below and
attach the RTF for your convenience. It lists our appropriation as
...................................................................... $
2,247,499 which matches  our request and the Governor's recommendation. We
had a bit of  a problem with the FTE count in the bill's predecessor last
week, but Rep. Kerr was very helpful and responsive in getting that
straightened out for us in this bill.  

https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=88
<https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=88&ba=HF758> &ba=HF758

On another issue that might be of interest to you all, we  are working on
partnering with Disability Rights Iowa to provide education to families
around guardianship.  DRI will also be presenting on this topic at the
IESBVI Spring Family Conference on Saturday. We have seen some issues and
problems where parents or family members seek to obtain or obtain
guardianship and maybe don't understand the issues that this might cause
when a person is seeking to obtain independence. Generally speaking
guardianship is meant to protect individuals who do not have the mental
capacity to make their own financial, medical, or other significant life
decisions. Sometimes there is a misinformed presumption made that a blind
person without reduced mental capacity should have a guardian. I wanted you
all to be aware of this issue and the related bill.  This bill seems to be a
very positive step and would prevent guardianships from  being rubber
stamped  by judges. Here is the link  and the RTF is attached. 

 <https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=88&ba=SF424>
https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=88&ba=SF424

Sincerely,

Emily Wharton, MFA CPM
Director, Iowa Department for the Blind
515.281.1334
https://blind.iowa.gov
http://www.atiowa.net
"A proud partner in the America's Job Center Network"

Scott Van Gorp, President
National Federation of the Blind of Iowa
Phone: 515-720-5282
 <mailto:svangorp at nfbi.org> Email

 <http://www.nfbi.org/> Website 

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