[Missouri-l] Associated Press Story from the Boston Globe

[Christopher Gray]

Hey folks, we've gone nationwide since yesterday.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.? Eleven blind residents scaled the steps of
the Missouri Capitol on Monday -- service dogs at their heels or
white canes in their hands --
to publicly plead with lawmakers to preserve funding for a state
program that provides health care to more than 2,800 blind people
who lack private insurance
and have limited wealth.

Whether their request is granted may depend on how health care is
financed for another vulnerable group of Missourians -- 1,350
military veterans who live in
state-run nursing homes.

House and Senate conference committee members who are hammering
out a final version of the state's $24 billion operating budget
have made funding for blind
health care -- as well as some autism services and a portion of
the state's tourism marketing -- dependent upon passage of a
separate bill creating a dedicated
funding source for state veterans homes.
But the veterans bill stalled Monday in the Senate, where it has
become tied to an attempt by some Republicans to block funding to
a women's political
institute at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, which they
contend has favored Democrats over Republicans. The
Republican-led House joined that effort Monday
night, passing a measure that would ban higher education
institutions or governmental entities from operating the women's
institute.

The senators who held up the veterans legislation also want to
include wording that would block money from being spent on a
quality rating system for
preschools and child-care centers. They fear that a particular
rating program being developed by the state education department
would prohibit some centers from
being eligible for state-subsidized child care.

The knot of issues must be detangled within the next few days if
lawmakers are to meet a constitutional deadline to send Gov. Jay
Nixon the budget by the end
of Friday.
Negotiators resolved several issues Monday, including one that
will provide a 2 percent pay raise -- effective July 1 -- to
state employees earning up to
$70,000 annually. The raise would cover more than 54,500
employees, nearly 97 percent of the workforce, at a cost of
almost $46 million. Missouri employees have
not had a pay raise since 2009 and ranked last nationally in
average yearly salaries in 2010.

The blind residents came to the Capitol on Monday hoping to put a
personal face on the dollar figures at stake in the budget
battle. They said the blind have
higher-than-usual living expenses -- including special watches,
cellphones and computer programs, among other things -- and often
have other health problems
that require costly medications.

"All we're asking really is they find it in their heart to keep
this funding," said Denny Huff, president of the Missouri Council
of the Blind. "A lot of them
are depending on this for life-sustaining medical coverage --
prescriptions -- and they're just not going to find it anyplace
else."

The state-funded blind health care program covers people who earn
at least $755 monthly -- too much to qualify for the traditional
Medicaid health care program
-- but have no more than $20,000 in assets besides their homes.
The House version of the budget proposed to eliminate the program
and replace it with a significantly scaled-down program. The
Senate version would fully fund
it at about $28 million.

The budgets proposed by the governor, House and Senate all
assumed that there would be a new dedicated funding stream for
the state's veterans homes. Although
the House passed two versions of that legislation, it has not yet
cleared the Senate. If the veterans funding legislation
ultimately fails, budget negotiators
said they may have to take general revenues from elsewhere to
keep the homes open.

House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey specifically cited
the blind benefits program, the state Tourism Division and a $1
million proposal for regional
autism projects as targets for potential reductions.

"There's a number of things that if that (veterans) bill doesn't
pass, we're going to have to revisit and probably cut," said
Silvey, R-Kansas City.

But state Sen. Jason Crowell, one of several senators who stalled
debate, said budget negotiators were presenting "a false
dichotomy." Crowell, R-Cape
Girardeau, said they could just as easily eliminate the state
employee pay raises or cut funding to public colleges and
universities.
"They don't give a rip about the blind," Crowell said.


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Christopher Gray, Executive Director
Missouri Council of the Blind

5453 Chippewa
St. Louis, MO 63109
Phone:     (314) 832-7172
Toll-free: (800) 342-5632
Fax:       (314) 832-7796