Senior Advocacy in Action Alert

5/6/2011 12:00am

House reduces senior services funding. Now is the time to contact state Legislators and encourage them to protect seniors services.

This week on the floor, the full House restored cuts to the Office of Services to the Aging for meals & community services, and eliminated all funding for the three senior volunteer programs.  These were the same cuts that came out of the House DCH Subcommittee.  Here are the specific cuts:

• $1, 581,700 (18%) – senior meals
• $1,835,000 (15%)  – community services
• $627,300 (100%) – RSVP
• $2,233,600 (100%) – Foster Grandparents
• $1,604,400 (100%) – Senior Companions

Due to procedural maneuvers there was no roll call vote on the OSA cuts. 

This is very disappointing – however, here is what you can do now:

Send messages to the following, who are likely members of the conference committee, asking that OSA cuts in aging programs be restored.

Sen. Roger Kahn senrkahn@senate.michigan.gov 

   (866) 305-2132

Sen. John Moolenaar senjmoolenaar@senate.michigan.gov 

    (517) 373-7946

Sen. Vince Gregory  senvgregory@senate.michigan.gov   

   (517) 373-7888

Rep. Chuck Moss  chuckmoss@house.mi.gov  

   (877) 707-6677

Rep. Matt Lori   mattlori@house.mi.gov   

   (877) 262-5959

Rep. Rashida Tlaib  rashidatlaib@house.mi.gov    

    (877) 852-4212

Here are more talking points you can use:

• OSA services prevent seniors from going on Medicaid.
• OSA services are extremely cost-effective.  The average annual cost of OSA services (meals-on-wheels and home care) was $1,000 in FY 2010.  In contrast, a nursing home cost an average of $68,000.
• There are over 6,000 seniors on waiting lists for OSA services like meals and home care.

Background:

Will the cuts ever end???  From 2009 – 2011, programs funded by the Office of Services to the Aging (OSA) were cut by $10 million (28%), and even more cuts are proposed for next year!

The Governor recommended another $2.2 million in OSA cuts, coming from meals ($800,000), community services ($1 million) and volunteer programs ($400,000).     

The Senate has approved an OSA budget with no cuts in senior meals, keeping the cuts in community services, and increasing the cuts in volunteer programs to $670,000.  The House has approved a very different version that increased cuts in senior meals ($1.6 million) and community services ($1.8 million), and totally eliminated funding for three senior volunteer programs – RSVP, Foster Grandparents and Senior Companions ($4.4 million total). 

The next step is a joint House-Senate Conference Committee that will work out the differences.  

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