[Vendorsmi] Can We Be Far Behind?

[Joe Sontag]

We were warned last year that there would be trouble for our program if things didn't start getting cleaned up; and our response was to ignore the messenger.  Below is an article that suggests strongly what may be happening in Michigan shortly.  Doubt what I'm saying? Can you say "State Plate?"  I rest my case.

Oklahoma Senate defeats bill to end Capitol vending space
for vision impaired
Through the Department of Rehabilitation Services, vision-impaired entrepreneurs
run two snack bars at the Capitol, but a bill proposed making the space available
to private companies instead.
BY MEGAN ROLLAND and BARBARA HOBEROCK Tulsa World | Published: April 19, 2012
 2
The state Senate defeated a bill termed "mean spirited" by one lawmaker that would
have taken snack bar space in the state Capitol from a program intended for the vision
impaired and put it up instead for free-market competition.
"Our job is to protect the most vulnerable in society," said Sen. Earl Garrison,
D-Muskogee. "There is no reason in the world to do it."
House Bill 2119 passed the House with only one no vote, but was defeated in the Senate
15-27.
Author of the bill, House Pro Tem Jeff Hickman, R-Fairview, said the service provided
by the blind and vision-impaired vendors was not meeting the needs and demands of
the busy Capitol.
The bill would have exempted the Capitol from a state-adopted federal law that gives
preference to vision-impaired vendors in state and county buildings with few exceptions,
such as hospitals and golf courses.
It also stipulated, however, that proceeds from renting the spaces to private vendors
would go to the Department of Rehabilitation Services to help fund programs like
their Business Enterprise Program that trains vision-impaired clients to run their
own vending stands in state and federal buildings.
_______________________________________________
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/vendorsmi_nfbnet.org/attachments/20120421/4ca90040/attachment.html>