To the editor:
As a taxpayer of the state of Maine I am appalled at the lack of judgment and insight that our Governor Baldacci has in dealing with the budget crisis. For years the legislature has increased the subsidies to the elderly and disabled and has created an environment whereby people have become dependant on the funding from the state. In most cases these programs are very beneficial and have allowed Maine residents in need to make ends meet and provide for services that they desperately need. Now that we again are faced with a budget crunch the Governor has decided to cut excess items from the budget and is doing so without understanding the impact that this will cause to our friends and neighbors.
The line item veto of funding for the Alpha One Home Care program that helps spouses of disabled individuals to be compensated to stay home with their loved one has been cut from the budget. In the case of one of my friends this means that his wife who deals with MS and is wheelchair bound with very limited mobility and receives only $800 per month from Social Security will lose the $1,400 per month that they received from Alpha One. This paid her husband just over $7 per hour — about minimum wage — to care for her.
This means that overnight they are forced to find a way to pay their $500 mortgage, and gas, food, fuel, medicine on $800 per month! It would cost well over the $1,400 a month to hire a visiting nurse to come to the home to do the same service, but not nearly as well as what takes place now.
It is absolutely cruel to cut funding to people like them with out any recourse for help. How can he find a job overnight and get a caregiver in place on a moment’s notice? If this situation has to stand a transition period needs to be imposed, and one has not. By July of 2008 they are on their own, and foreclosure is soon to follow. How can this happen?
We are especially fortunate to have service agencies such as ACAP, the Area Agency on Aging, Alpha One, Personal Services of Aroostook, Opportunity Training Center and others who have one-on-one contact with citizens who are in need. They know the programs from beginning to end and see what works and what does not. Do you think that they are consulted in how to apply funds from the State? No they aren’t, bureaucrats are calling the shots, and for the most part they are upper middle class folks who don’t have to deal with the hard choices that our elderly and disabled populations face every day. Food or Fuel, Rent or Medical Services? I’d like to see our legislators and the Governor have to live for one month under the rules that they impose on our citizens in need. They would not be long changing the system.
Legislators and Governor Baldacci if you have any compassion and care at all about our citizens reinstate the Alpha One funding to the budget. This cannot be allowed to stand as you have left it.
Presque Isle
