Writing in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dave Blanchard takes Governor Sonny Perdue to task for a budget plan that withdraws his previous pledge to whittle away the waiting lists separating people with disabilities from much-needed services. There are currently more than 5,500 Georgians with disabilities waiting for services, and the list is growing.

Gov. Sonny Perdue … dropped one of the main tenets of government, to support people in our community who are among our most vulnerable.

… If you could hear the stories being told by parents, you would know that fear and frustration for the future are at the core of their worries. Their needs are not tied to revenue projections. Parents at their wits’ end do not profess to understand the complicated formulas used to define budget revenues, or the Solomonlike decisions of prioritizing a $21.1 billion state budget. They simply tell us their honest stories of overwhelming need, and are left to pray that their trust in our state legislators is well-founded. I, too, pray for our governor and General Assembly to have the courage and resolve to honor commitments made to 5,500 Georgians waiting for our help.

Dave Blanchard is director of public policy for the Atlanta Alliance on Developmental Disabilities.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 12:22 pm and is filed under families, NOT2BEMISSED, parents, politics, waiting list/waivers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.