-Meals on Wheels Volunteer-
Lincoln County Commissioner Bill Hall announced at Wednesday’s Lincoln County Commission meeting that push is coming to shove in state government over scheduled funding cuts for critically important senior citizen outreach services. A statewide outcry over the expected demise of “Project Independence,” which helps keeps senior citizens in their homes, and the reduction in the senior nutrition program “Meals on Wheels” has prompted lawmakers and their Legislative Emergency Board to begin shifting state funds to preserve those programs for at least the next six months. During that time, it is hoped that federal government and Oregon legislative revenue supplements can extend them even further. The U.S. Congress is debating these very issues as you read this news story.
Meanwhile, the Oregon Legislative Emergency Board is expected to approve state revenue enhancements to the senior outreach programs tomorrow at their meeting in Salem. The “E-Board” as it’s sometimes referred to, is an adjunct to the Oregon Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee which has wide powers on state fiscal matters, especially when the legislature is not in session. However, there may yet be called a special session of the legislature if the state’s financial condition worsens. Oregon’s dominant Democratic Party is trying to avoid convening a special session, especially if the session would be called mainly to slash many popular and critically important services to senior citizens and the desperately needy. That, they say, would cast Democrats in a very bad light going into the November elections which democrats say is unfair because “we didn’t cause the recession, the republicans did.”
Share on Facebook