Residents Speak Out at Capitol

Lawmakers should ensure that Georgia’s state budget restores funding for senior services, and they should oppose bills that would cut unemployment benefits and set new hurdles for needy residents applying for temporary assistance, a delegation of AARP members from Douglas County told local legislators in a visit Tuesday to the state capitol.

AARP members urged lawmakers to maintain funding in this year’s state budget for ‘respite services’ for caregivers helping Alzheimer’s patients and other seniors needing long-term care. The also expressed strong opposition to Senate Bill 447, which would reduce already low state unemployment benefits by 25 to 50 percent. Georgia currently provides on average fewer weeks of unemployment coverage than any other state.

Sixteen members of the AARP Douglas County Chapter, all residents of Douglasville, made the trip Tuesday to the capitol. They spoke with state Sen. Donzella James and state Reps. Kevin Cooke and Dustin Hightower.

Members of the delegation also urged lawmakers to:

• Oppose Senate Bill 312, which requires “personal growth” instruction and activities for needy applicants seeking food stamps and other temporary financial assistance from the state. AARP members wondered where the state will find money to pay for instructors, transportation and child care for applicants in a budget that has been ravaged by years of cuts.
• Support House Bill 290, which would require analysis of tax credits in annual budget reports so that it is easier to assess the effectiveness and impact of such tax breaks.

In support of funding for respite services, AARP delegates reminded area legislators that long-term care is a preferred and extremely cost-effective alternative to nursing home care.

Caregivers, who are often family members, allow seniors to continue living in their homes and communities despite needing assistance with some daily tasks. Respite services allow caregivers to get time away to deal with work, their own daily errands, household needs and emergencies. Without respite services to relieve caregivers, more seniors would ultimately have no choice but to move to a nursing home for continued care.

Nursing home care already accounts for 80 percent of the annual $2 billion Medicaid budget in Georgia. Proposed funding for respite services in the 2012 budget totals just over $630,000 and would provide 62,000 hours of respite for caregivers.

The trip by members of AARP’s Douglas County Chapter was part of Three Weeks at the Capitol, an annual event hosted and organized by the AARP Georgia State Office during the Georgia Assembly’s legislative session. AARP Georgia serves members throughout the state from its headquarters in Atlanta.
Douglas County residents making the trip to the capitol Tuesday were Jimmy Anderson, Bobbie Anken, Glenda Byers, Judy Cartwright, Jean Conrad, Chris Dixon, Norene Herren, Gerry Kerr, Jane Lee, Jeanette Lewis, Audrey Long, Alice Nelson, Luz Ortiz, Isabella Reed, Claudette Roy, and Jamie Running, all from Douglasville.