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To:
IARF Member Executive Directors The
Department of Human Services held several briefings today to share more in-depth
detail of their proposed plans for FY03.
ORS and OMH presented their plans to providers and advocates, while ODD
presented their plan only to advocates. Nothing
new was presented at the ORS meeting.
OMH’s plan was even more devastating than expected, cutting more than
5.4 % and many ancillary MH programs.
And ODD’s plan would irreversibly damage the community system.
The plans are unacceptable. All
information handed out at these meetings today can be found below. After
the final Department briefing, IARF met with representatives of Don Moss &
Associates, ARCI, and The Institute on Public Policy to devise our response. The
consensus of the group was “these
cuts are unacceptable”, a position we outlined to our letter to the Governor
of 2/21/02.
The group agreed that the proposed plan by DHS was not negotiable or
warranted any response beyond “the cuts are unacceptable.”
The group will be working together in the upcoming weeks to gain media
attention and combine our strengths as advocacy organizations and our members to
reject the DHS plan for FY03.
Our message to the Governor will be “Find revenue; do not make cuts.
We will help you, we will support you, but do not cut the community human
service system.” The FY03 budget will be the topic of the meeting of the membership at the Association on 2/27/02 at 9:30 am at The Association Headquarters. |