Advocates target budget cuts

Article published Jan 31, 2011 Advocates target budget cuts Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER — Last week, Gov. Peter Shumlin proposed. This week, opponents of his planned budget cuts will try to convince lawmakers to dispose. Legislators in the House and Senate this week will begin to acquaint themselves with the budget proposal unveiled by Shumlin last Tuesday. As they do, advocates will make their cases against the nearly $44 million in cuts at the Agency of Human Services. Proposed 5 percent reductions at community mental-health centers and developmental-service agencies have drawn some of the loudest fire. On Wednesday, organizers of the annual “Mental Health Advocacy Day” will focus squarely on the $4.6 million in cuts proposed for those agencies. “This year, for the first time ever, 16 advocacy groups with something at stake in mental health have come together and put together a common agenda,” Floyd Nease, executive director of the Vermont Association of Mental Health, said Sunday. “And we’ll be presenting that common agenda to committees on Wednesday.” Nease, a former representative from Johnson who last year served as the House majority leader, said the most effective way to convince lawmakers to reject cuts is through “a conversation with one of their constituents who is going to be affected.” To that end, “self-advocates” — people receiving developmental or mental-health services from one of the targeted agencies — will occupy the Statehouse card room Tuesday to reach out to their elected representatives. The health-care debate is largely on hold until Feb. 8, when the Shumlin administration is scheduled to deliver its single-payer bill to the Legislature. But representatives on the House and Senate health-care committees this week will learn more about key components of single-payer health-care systems, as well as the federal laws they’ll need to bypass in order to institute one. Those committees also will get briefings from administration officials on the more than $36 million in new taxes that Shumlin has proposed for hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, dentists and private insurers like Blue Cross Blue Shield Vermont. On Tuesday afternoon, lawmakers on the House Committee on Human Services will get their first look at proposed legislation that seeks to outlaw smoking in cars where children are present. The bill would levy a $100 fine on adults who light up any tobacco product while riding in a vehicle with someone younger than 18. And on Tuesday, in Berlin, Shumlin will start with a piping hot bowl of oatmeal, with pure Vermont maple syrup. Shumlin two weeks ago announced that the fast-food chain, in a false-advertising settlement with the attorney general, had agreed to offer pure maple syrup with its oatmeal. In an off-the-cuff remark at his weekly press conference, Shumlin said he’d be there on Feb. 1 — the day the syrup offer takes effect. Shumlin’s aides say he’ll make good on that promise. He’ll be at the McDonald’s on the Barre-Montpelier Road at 8:30 a.m. for breakfast. peter.hirschfeld @timesargus.com