La. senators urged to fund education, health care

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — People who rely on the state for health care and education pleaded Friday with senators to keep those programs off the chopping block in next year’s $25 billion budget, in what has become an annual struggle to stave off cuts to services amid the state’s financial problems.

The Senate Finance Committee heard requests for spending cuts to be reversed, for programs to be continued and for spending to increase on services with long waiting lists.

“Please consider their needs and help them all you can,” said Mike Futrell, as he requested dollars for the Louisiana Assistive Technology Access Network, or LATAN, which works with disabled people to find technology that can help them work, study or cope with daily life.

It was the day for public testimony, as senators decide what changes they want to make to the 2013-14 budget proposal forwarded by the House for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Finance Committee Chairman Jack Donahue, R-Mandeville, said the panel will rework the budget Wednesday, then send it to the full Senate for debate.

People pitching their causes spilled into the halls, waiting their turn. Some women wept as they spoke about the funds they sought for disabled children, domestic violence shelters and the state’s voucher program.

Anthony White asked senators to continue paying for his son Matthew to attend Hosanna Christian Academy in Baton Rouge through the voucher program, which uses tax dollars to send children from low- and moderate-income families to private schools.

“I’m not here asking for you guys to pay for my membership in a country club … I’m just asking for a quality education for my child,” White said.

The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that the public school financing formula was an unconstitutional method for paying for the program, so lawmakers will have to add the dollars as a line item in the budget if they want to continue vouchers.

“We’re offering a high-value education to parents. Our mission is to help poor children escape poverty,” said Danny Loar, executive director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Please vote for the children and vote to fund the scholarship program.”

Family members of developmentally disabled children who need around-the-clock care urged committee members to consider adding $4 million to include 200 more people in a program that pays for at-home and community-based care for the disabled, saying 10,000 people are on a waiting list for services.

Lester Adams, executive director of Lafourche Arc in Thibodaux, a nonprofit that provides services to the developmentally disabled in a seven-parish region, said proposed cuts to Medicaid payment rates would damage services.

Adams said the agency had already been cut back to its rate of funding in 2005.

“I don’t think anybody believes you can buy the same number of services and the same things with 2013 money that you could in 2005,” he said.

Even state agency leaders showed up for public testimony.

Eve Gonzalez, executive secretary for the Louisiana Public Service Commission, asked senators to restore money cut by the House to planned funding for the utility regulatory agency. She said the $472,000 reduction would cause layoffs and delays in handling utility rate cases, audits and investigations of complaints.

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Online:

House Bill 1 can be found at www.legis.la.gov

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