Resolution 2008-01
Regarding the Impact of State Budget Cuts on Blind Citizens

WHEREAS, due to the declining national and local economies, resulting in diminished tax revenues, state government has been forced to implement stringent budget cuts; and

WHEREAS, these budget cuts are having a detrimental impact on the lives of blind citizens, resulting especially from cuts for the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Division of Rehabilitation Services (DORS); and

WHEREAS, blind persons are in danger of losing their jobs because DOT now plans to totally eliminate round-trip commuter bus routes to Baltimore from Columbia, Bel Air, and Laurel; and

WHEREAS, DOT also plans to substantially reduce services on the MARC Train and on other bus routes; and

WHEREAS, blind persons who are denied access to public transportation have no other options, but to quit their jobs and remain at home; and

WHEREAS, inadequate funding for DORS has created unduly long waiting times for newly blind people who need adjustment to blindness training, forcing them to continue to depend on their families or welfare services for subsistence; and

WHEREAS, under present circumstances, it is doubtful that the $2.7 million that DORS requested for the fiscal 2010 budget to reduce the waiting times will be included in the Governor’s proposed budget; and

WHEREAS, 15% of the Rehabilitation Department’s budget of Blind Industries and Services of Maryland (BISM) was unexpectedly cut for the current fiscal year, which is drastically reducing the number of blind students that BISM can serve; and

WHEREAS, blind persons could become productive tax-paying citizens if opportunities for training and rehabilitation from DORS were not so severely limited; and

WHEREAS, the Maryland State Department of Disabilities (MDOD) was created to ensure that state government promotes meaningful opportunities for Maryland citizens with disabilities and was set up as a cabinet level department to increase leadership and advocacy for these citizens; and

WHEREAS, MDOD is now in a unique position to inform the Governor of the detrimental impact that such budget cuts are having on citizens with disabilities who have no other resources to fall back upon: Now, therefore

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland in convention assembled this sixteenth day of November, 2008, in the City of Ocean City, Maryland, that this organization urge MDOD to rise to the occasion by serving as a true advocate for citizens with disabilities by informing the Governor and the executive departments of state government of the dire consequences of state budget cuts on the lives of Maryland’s blind and disabled citizens; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge the Governor to bring back the lost transportation services and to provide adequate funding for rehabilitation services in the fiscal 2010 budget.

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