More budget fights--Mo state house/madness

The following is from a newsletter from From:
"Jeanette Mott Oxford" jmo4rep@juno.com

Ms. Oxford is a very progressive friend in the statehouse in Missouri and is thought of highly by labor. I met her at the Sicko premere is St. Louis some time ago. Woman to give support in my opinion.

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Friends, Constituents, and Allies,

Missouri House of Representatives Budget Chair Allen Icet and GOP leadership are proposing over $300 million in cuts to health care and critical state services. GOP leadership must hear from you immediately if we are going to prevent these cuts. The budget bills move to the House floor the week of March 24!

Rep. Icet and majority party House leaders are doing the opposite of what our economy needs. They are eliminating more than 3,700 jobs and cutting over $300 million in critical state services that are vital to laid off workers and families. These cuts turn away billions of dollars of federal funding to shore up Missouri's economy over the next few years. 70,000 Missourians will lose services or have them reduced.

These cuts are unnecessary. Federal economic recovery money is available so that not one service, job or person has to be cut. But key Missouri legislative leaders refuse to use federal recovery act dollars as they were intended.

Cuts they are proposing include:
$4.4 million to Medicaid funding to provide services to Medicaid-eligible patients. This cut will jeopardize $7.8 million in federal Medicaid funds available to Missouri.
$1.8 million for Home and Community Based Services for Seniors and People with Developmental Disabilities.
$2.0 million to Area Agencies on Aging which will reduce services for seniors including transportation, home delivered meals, health promotion and more.
$48.7 million to Mental Health Services, affecting thousands of children and adults with severe mental illness or developmental disabilities.

In addition, they have eliminated funding Gov. Jay Nixon proposed that would expand health insurance coverage to 34,000 working parents. The Missouri Hospital Association volunteered to pay Missouri’s share of the cost so that the cost to taxpayers was zero. This proposal would have brought almost $98 million in federal funds to our state.

There are cuts and shenanigans going on with the education budget too:
Last year $5 million was cut from professional development for teachers, and this year they've taken away the remaining $15 million to zero out the program. Outrageous! Teacher training is a proven way to reduce achievement disaparities that relate to race/ethnicity and income as well as to improve all educational outcomes. Yet another penny-wise pound-foolish mistake in the budget championed by Rep. Icet.

The House Republican budget uses more than $500 million in federal funds to replace general revenue that normally would fund the school foundation formula. (They are unwilling to do this with social services, health, and mental health, but are doing it with education - a strange inconsistency.) In addition to using federal funds to supplant state spending on education, GOP leadership is playing a shell game with the Proposition A casino revenue approved by voters in November. Voters were promised the money would be additional revenue for public schools but instead it is being used to replace $108 million in general revenue for other non-education purposes. You can read more about this at: http://www.stlbeacon.org/mo_legislature/stimulus_shell_game_are_missouri_legislators_diverting_federal_money_from_intended_uses_
For a very detailed analysis of the proposed cuts, go to: http://www.mobudget.org/
Of course I plan to fight these cuts and to vote no if we cannot amend the funds back into the budget. But Democrats have little chance to succeed because Rep. Icet is very determined to make the cuts happen and because there are 89 Republicans and only 74 Democrats in the House. Therefore we have to reach GOP leaders if changes are to be made. Here's what to do -----
Write, e-mail, or call these House leaders who have proposed or supported the cuts and who have the power to stop them from happening:
- House Budget Chair Allen Icet: 636-519-0002; http://us.mc331.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=Allen.Icet@house.mo.gov
- House Budget Vice-chair Rick Stream: 314-822-0556; http://us.mc331.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=Rick.Stream@house.mo.gov- Speaker of the House Ron Richard: 417-781-0206; http://us.mc331.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=Ronald.Richard@house.mo.gov
- Speaker Pro Tem Bryan Pratt: 816-220-1099; http://us.mc331.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=Bryan.Pratt@house.mo.gov
Each may also be written by snail mail at:
The Honorable [Representative's Name]
House of Representatives
Jefferson City, MO 65101

The most effective thing you can do is to call or write a letter. E-mails are the next choice for effective advocacy. (Since they take less time, they carry less weight with legislators.) If you cannot take time to personally write, call, or visit these House leaders about the budget cuts, then by all means use this e-mail tool from St. Louis Area Jobs with Justice:

http://www.unionvoice.org/stljwj/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=24114967

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Note: although the feds pick up 62 cents of every dollar and hospitals have submitted plan to pay additional taxes, Missouri statehouse folks oppose the help. This refusal under the last governor cost Missouri over a bilion dollars in aid. Yes a billion and even after the election, some of our fearless leaders still oppose. Madness and this underscores the need for HR676 now.

Use the links above and let folks know what you think. Project for myself monday.