This Could be our Last Chance!

Friends, 

It saddens me to deliver such negative news to everyone, but you deserve to know about today's critical legislative events.  I’m sure that you all are aware of the importance that the General Fund budget allocation has on AIDS service organizations and on people living with HIV/AIDS, as we have been working together for the past couple of weeks to try to get the budget corrected.  Today, the General Fund budget was passed by the Senate.  Unfortunately, it has now passed both the House and the Senate without the $5 million match required by the federal government to guarantee that Alabama continues to receive millions in federal Ryan White funds that the state needs to properly support people living with HIV/AIDS.  Only $2.8 million was included; we will become the second state in Ryan White history to fail to make the required federal match, and we may lose up to $10 million. The budget also passed without any of the $700,000 for the  state’s AIDS service organizations (ASOs).  You have read in our previous emails, these funds are critical to help the state’s ASOs fight the increasing numbers of people that are infected with HIV every day.  These cuts will probably result in some of the smaller ASOs closing down or substantially cutting needed services.   

 

There is still a final step left to finalize the General Fund budget.  A committee of members from the House (Representatives Knight, Page, and Gaston) has to vote to reconcile the Senate’s version of the budget.  These are the people we need to focus our efforts on.  This is our last chance to have our voices heard on this critical issue!  Please take a moment to call and email Representative John Knight, Representative Victor Gaston, and Representative Jack Page.  We all did a good job of contacting our representatives in the House two weeks ago and now we need to double our efforts for our last chance to keep Alabama from moving significantly backward in thefight to prevent HIV and care for those living with HIV/AIDS.  We need your help now more than ever!

 

To make this as easy as possible here is a message that you can simply copy and paste into your email to the representatives:
 
Gentlemen-  

Please understand how critical HIV/AIDS funding is to our state.  The General Fund budget allocation needs to be corrected to fully include the required $5.7 million match.  Our state cannot afford to lose the Ryan White funding.   Alabama will become only the second state to fail to make the required federal match and could cause an additional loss of over $10 million in funding.  

Please consider all Alabamians living with this disease and the dedicated workers at these organizations that make it their mission to care for them.  These organizations also educate Alabama’s population on safe practices and help lower the number of new cases in our state. 

You each have the power to save this funding.  I kindly ask for a reply with your position on this matter.  Our state is counting on you.

As always, we sincerely thank you for your efforts on this issue.

Contact the Conference Committee:

reppage@bellsouth.net

 

Our mailing address is:
AIDS Alabama 3521 7th Ave. S. Birmingham, AL 35222

Our telephone:
(205)324-9822

Copyright (C) 2007 AIDS Alabama All rights reserved.

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