Supplemental Aid for the Blind Archives

House Committee advances transitional supplement for blind

March 21, 2012 By Mike Lear

Legislation to put $4 million towards helping some of the state’s blind transition off of a supplemental program eliminated in the House budget proposal has advanced out of Committee.

Budget Commitee Chairman Ryan Silvey

The bill is sponsored by Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City). It would eliminate the tax exemption for equipment and supplies for the newspaper industry. It would take the revenue from that tax and use it to offer assistance with health care costs to blind individuals who are not eligible for MO HealthNet benefits but qualify for the blind pension.

See the legislation, HB 1835

Silvey filed the bill while the budget was still in Committee, after cutting the larger $28 million dollar supplemental program that benefits more than 2,800 blind individuals in the state. Silvey says those individuals already have income, and applicants to the program are not means tested. His budget proposal put that $28 million dollars into Higher Education, which Governor Jay Nixon (D)had cut $106 million from in his proposed budget.

A budget amendment offered by Columbia representative Chris Kelly puts another $2 million toward transitioning those individuals.

Democrats and the Governor have criticized the program’s elimination, with some saying the Senate is likely to restore it.

House advances budget with few changes, blind cuts not restored (AUDIO)

March 21, 2012 By Mike Lear

If funding is to be restored to a supplemental pension program for more than 2,800 blind in Missouri, it will likely have to happen in the Senate.

House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey (photo courtesy, House Communications)

The House spent more than five hours debating the 13 bills that make up the $24 billion Fiscal Year 2013 budget on Tuesday. In the few changes that were made, the $28 million dollars in the supplemental program for the blind was not restored.

Representative Sara Lampe (D-Springfield) offered an amendment to take more than $1.1 million from drug testing for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients and put it toward the blind program, but that was defeated.

House Republicans opposed the amendment and it was defeated. Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City) said, “It’s often said in the appropriations process that if you lose the fight on the policy, you can always go after the money and de-fund it … This appears to me to be a second crack at defeating something that was overwhelmingly approved and signed by the Governor.”

Other amendments had been drafted that would have restored the funding for the blind by other mechanisms, but none were offered.

Among changes that were made…

An amendment was adopted to take $3 million out of a fund in the budget for the Department of Corrections that some lawmakers said was being misused.

Representative Rodney Schad (R-Versailles) offered the amendment. He said that money was supposed to be used to support vocational enterprises in the corrections system, buying things like farm equipment and seeds and maintaining buildings, but that’s not what it’s been used for.

“We have spent $305,400 on uniforms and clothing, $303,000 for custodial supplies, $781,000 for clothing supplies, $53,000 for laundry and linen supplies, $2,040 for personal care items. Nowhere in the statutes is that allowed.”

Schad says his amendment will require all funds generated by Missouri vocational enterprises stay in that fund.

Mamtek reaches the budget debate

Another amendment was adopted that stemmed from the failed Mamtek project in Moberly.

Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City) offered the proposal to shuffle around $50,000 of federal money in the Department of Economic Development’s budget to create a position, who would be responsible for making sure it is conducting due diligence investigation into applicants for tax credit benefits.

Barnes, who headed up the House Committee that studied the Mamtek deal, said he doesn’t believe the Department will create such a position on its own. “They haven’t necessarily taken the responsibility for the shortcomings involved in Mamtek that I would have hoped they’d take.”

The House is expected to vote on the budget on Thursday.

AUDIO: Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey’s statement closing budget debate on the House Floor, 6:05

AUDIO: Representative Sara Lampe’s statement opening budget debate on the House Floor, 2:43

House Budget Chairman’s proposal maintains cuts for blind, restores higher education cuts

March 1, 2012 By Mike Lear

The House Budget Committee Chairman is proposing wiping out the Governor’s cut to higher education, in part with money that supports some of the state’s blind.

House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey; Photo courtesy, Jonathan Lorenz, Missouri House Communications

Chairman Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City) proposes filling back in the $106 million dollar cut the Governor proposed to higher education. $28 million of that would come out of the Supplemental Aid to the Blind program. He says people need to understand what that program is and who it helps.

“There is the emotional argument which just labels people and groups them together … then there’s the argument where you actually look at the program and you see that we’re talking about 2,800 people who have income, and that their income is too much for Medicaid. That’s the population that we’re dealing with.”

The Governor blasted the elimination of that program. In a statement, he says in many cases, it provides services that “are the crucial elements that enable them to live in their own homes.” Nixon says, “We should not, and cannot, remove the funding for this program,” and calls the proposal, “just plain wrong.”

Another $5 million is what the Governor proposed putting into the K-12 foundation formula, which Silvey says was an election year stunt.

“For me it was a matter of where are you getting the best bang for your buck in the education dollar. Is it $5 a year per student, which is what his increase in elementary and secondary education would have been, or is it close to five percent of restoring the cut that he made to higher education.”

See the list of House appropriations bills here.

Silvey’s proposal does restore $889 thousand to sexual violence victim’s services, and he says some of the recommendations of the Appropriations Committee on Health, Mental Health and Social Services have not been followed after a working group reexamined those in the last week.

The House Budget Committee will meet several days next week. Republican leadership expects the budget to reach the floor the week after Spring Break.