Hello everyone,

Normally I would not ask for your help like this, but this is an emergency.

The legislature is trying to balance the budget by making enormous cuts to
services for the disabled.

Below is an email from the ARC of Orange County. Please, please make a call
today to help.

Thank you,

Gary Wallach



Action Needed!
Make 3 phone calls today!
June 1, 2009


DO NOT WAIT FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO CALL; EVERY SINGLE PERSON HAS TO MAKE THESE
CALLS! ACT NOW!!

The House Budget Threatens Our Lives
Your help is needed today to avert a major crisis
The House's proposed budget will destroy the economic fabric of our state. (If
you would like to read the proposed budget go to the action alert page at:
http://72.167.22.100/action_alert/index.shtml . Click on the link for the House
Budget Proposal)

Our service system will be set back 40 years. The House's proposed budget cuts
to Health and Human Services and Medicaid will have a total impact of close to
$3.5 billion.

The proposed budget has 18 pages of cuts. Some are as follows:
· Reduction in CAP/MR use of state supplemental funds
· Reduction in state funded services for people currently authorized.
· Freeze enrollment in health choice for children.
· Eliminates funding for Special Olympics.
· Reduces special assistance rates paid to group homes for room and
board.
· Reduces VR funding.
· Reduces all rates by 4%.
· Reduces then completely eliminates community support services next year.
· Eliminate therapeutic camps for kids with DD.
· Freezes CAP slots.
· Consolidate case management services.
· Reduces personal care services by 50%.
· Reduce staffing for state funded programs, i.e. reducing staff in
hospitals that have experienced deaths due to inadequate staffing.
This means that rates will decrease, services will be discontinued, staff will
be laid off, small providers will go out of business. This means that children
receiving waiver services will get less service, less hours, and lower paid
staff, resulting in turnover and injuries/accidents due to inadequate training.
This means that people who are now kept out of the psychiatric hospital with
community services will now be hospitalized. This means that case managers will
be busier, less qualified, and lower paid with higher case loads. This means
that anyone who receives waiver services will no longer be able to receive ADVP
or ADAP services. People who currently have a full day of supports will now
have partial day, and services will be in groups, not one to one. This means
that people who need personal care to take a shower or use the bathroom will
have their supports cut by 50%. This means that anyone on a waiting list will
still be waiting. This
means less people with disabilities can get jobs, and about half the thousands
of people currently employed in the field will be laid off. This means that
with inadequate staffing and supervision, people will put in difficult and
potentially life threatening situations.
The entire service system will be destroyed. Individuals and families will lose
their services. It's not even a matter of trying to send people with
developmental disabilities back to institutions - there won't be institutions
and there won't be community supports.

A few of the worst cuts are:
Reducing the budget for state-funded services by over $150,000,000
Cuts all Medicaid service rates by 4% causing salary reductions and layoffs
Cuts Medicaid Personal Care Services by over $50,000,000...reducing the services
by over half. This is the only direct service other than case management that is
a Medicaid entitlement for people with developmental disabilities
Eliminates continuation increases in Medicaid of over $500,000,000. This cut
means serious reductions because any increases in CAP plans implemented during
the last fiscal year will be eliminated
Cuts case management services by over $50,000,000 by "consolidation"
Eliminates the Medicaid service called Community Support which is the one
Medicaid service that is designed to support people with mental illness in the
community.

The House's budget will cause a depression in North Carolina. The massive
reduction in jobs in health and human services and education, as well as in
other areas, will result in a lower tax base, which in turn will necessitate
further budget cuts and more losses in services. It's a vicious, downward
spiraling cycle.

THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW! We must all unite to fight the House's proposed budget,
and we have no time to waste. The House may vote on the budget as early as June
8.

No one can afford to sit back and watch this budget debacle play out. The lives
of people with disabilities, their families and the entire state of North
Carolina depend on everyone getting involved. Don't think someone else will
make the calls. YOU must make the calls!

The Arc of Orange County, Chapters around the state, and The Arc of NC have a
strategic advocacy plan. Today, tomorrow and Wednesday the leadership of the
House must hear from you. We will send out an e-alert when it is time for the
next steps, but today, you need to make three calls:

Speaker Hackney 919-733-3451
Majority Leader Holliman 919-715-0873
Minority Leader Stam 919-733-2962

Tell them:
The proposed cuts in HHS and education will destroy our state, risking the lives
of people with disabilities, our children's future, cost thousands of jobs and
drive our state into a depression! Raise taxes in order to avoid this disaster!
We hold the House accountable!
These cuts are devastating and people will die.
These services and supports are keeping people alive, well and in their
homes/communities. These cuts will cause institutionalization and greater costs
to the state.
The state needs to raise taxes; we cannot cut our way out of a 4.8 billion
dollar budget hole. I am willing to pay higher taxes to make sure people have
services and supports.
These representatives must receive thousands of phone calls in the next two
days.

To follow The Arc of North Carolina's activities on the House budget at:
www.thearcnc.blogspot.com.

We've got a tough fight ahead of us, but we can make a difference if we all work
together to defeat the House's proposed budget.

Robin Baker
Executive Director
The Arc of Orange County
208 North Columbia Street, Suite 100
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
919 942-5119 ext 117
www.arcoforange.org