You have put a face to the budget cutting decisions being made by our legislators
On Thursday night, the House Health and Human Services( HHS) Appropriations Subcommittee faced a packed audience and forwarded its budget “without prejudice” to the full House Appropriations Committee. This means they did not vote yes or no, but passed it along to the full House Appropriations Committee or “Big Chairs” for consideration and approval before moving on to the House floor for a vote.
The fact that they did not vote yes on this budget shows you are having an impact.
By the end of the meeting, legislators from both parties stated they could not support the proposed HHS budget cuts.
No one in the audience could remain unmoved by the many children and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities and their families who sat or stood for hours to remind our state leaders that these proposed budget cuts will hurt them and their families.
* Thanks to all of you who attended- you and your children represented all of us in the autism and DD community who will affected by these cuts. We appreciate the courage and patience you demonstrated through out the meeting.
* Thanks to all of you who contacted legislators. The House phone lines were jammed and Legislators have noted the thousands of phone calls, emails and letters received.
But the fight to ensure these cuts are stopped and people have their needs met is far from over.
We must keep up our opposition to these proposed budget cuts for the rest of this session.
* Keep contacting your legislators. Tell them your story and how these proposed cuts will affect you and your family.
* Tell them as a taxpayer you want them to raise taxes and save services.
* Write letters to the editor of your newspaper
* Call in to talk radio shows that are discussing the budget crisis
* Ask for help from your neighbors, family and friends.
Plans are underway for a Developmental Disability lobbying day in Raleigh. The proposed date is Wednesday, June 17. We will provide more information next week.
Sincerely,
The Autism Society of North Carolina
Hard to imagine that after 30 years of paying taxes, paying into the system, it goes broke and my 3 year old developmentally delayed son is unable to obtain the critical services he needs to aid in his recovery. I have been a gracious giver these past 30 years, always thinking that my tax money was going to help someone with an overwhelming problem. I never really thought that my money went to pay incentives (kickbacks) to industries, helicopter rides to Southport, $170,000 per year honorary positions in in the State University system. When someone recently pointed their finger at all the wasteful spending that will perhaps rob my son of his opportunities I just smiled. I mean what can I do? What can any of us do? The world is sinking from the amount of debt loaded on board and the first thing the government wants to do is toss our kids overboard to lighten the load. What can we do, if my son goes overboard, I go with him, his mother goes with him, our house, our jobs, our tax money will all get sucked down right along with him, we aren\’t letting go, if he goes, we all go.
We spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make our State attractive to businesses and people wanting to relocate here, bringing jobs and revenue into our General Fund. We pave roads, build bridges, for reasons of commerce, we hire law enforcement officers, fund probation departments, courts and enact various crime task force programs to keep us all safe. We scoop handfuls of dollars into the universities and community colleges to nurture and grow the bright minds, talents and potential of our young revenue stream. We do this so that we can step over the needs of our neighbor\’s children? Really?
I\’ll say it again, if my son goes down, we all go down cause I ain\’t lettin\’ go, his life depends on it!