Campaign for Oregon’s Seniors and People with Disabilities

Media Clips & Coverage

After an across-the-board cuts order by Gov. Ted Kulongoski this summer that would have effectively dismantled Oregon’s treasured and cost-effective system of long-term care, Oregon and national media put an important spotlight on this issue and examined the impacts cuts would have.

Thankfully, the legislature’s Emergency Board voted unanimously to restore these cuts, realizing the tremendous human and economic impacts at stake and that there was a better way to balance Oregon’s budget. Because of this action:

• Thousands of our most vulnerable citizens will maintain access to essential services that help allow them to say in their home or communities.
• Thousands of care providers will be able to keep their income, health coverage and jobs.
• More than $34 million of federal matching funds will be able to stay at work right here in Oregon, accross our communities and economy.

Unfortunately, we’re not out of the woods yet. Services were only restored through the end of February next year. Much hard work remains and tough choices lie ahead as economic challenges face our state both in the short and long-term.

Now, more than ever, we all need to come together as Oregonians to find a better way to preserve essential services key to our collective quality of life and our economic future.

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Speaking out for Oregon’s Seniors & People with Disabilities

June 3 -

Salem, Oregon - The Campaign began running a radio spot about the disproportionate cuts to services for seniors and people with disabilities.

With 40 percent cuts to in-home and nursing facility care, the proposed cuts seek to balance the budget on the back of some of Oregon’s most vulnerable. The consequences are  too devastating: 

• Thousands of seniors and people with disabilities will suffer - from losing their in-home supports to facing reduced quality of care;
• More than 6,000 caregiver and other jobs in Oregon’s long-term care sector will be lost;
• Nearly $200 million of critical federal matching funds will be forfeited; and
• Oregon’s innovative home- and community-based model of long-term care will be further dismantled.

We must find a balanced approach that preserves core services and maintains jobs. Oregon’s seniors and people with disabilities, their families, our communities and economy are depending on it.

Please speak out today. Call 800-711-4539 NOW.  Tell your legislator that we can’t afford such drastic cuts,  and that Oregon’s seniors and care workers deserve better.  

Human-services advocates make their case

Human-services advocates make their case; Building bridges brings in jobs, they say, but so does building lives.

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News Releases

The Campaign for Oregon’s Seniors and People with Disabilities 2009 Legislative Session Wrap-Up

The 2009 Oregon Legislative Session came to a close this week. And despite tremendous challenges and an unprecedented economic crisis, there is some good news to report for many programs and services that help Oregon’s seniors and disabilities.

Thank you, members of the Campaign for Oregon’s Seniors and People with Disabilities. You worked together and collectively wore your yellow scarves and buttons. You rallied at the Capitol for Legislative Action Days. You testified at hearings, met with your legislators, turned out to Town Halls and Ways & Means hearings, and made thousands of calls and e-mails. You hand wrote postcards to your elected officials and showed up at community forums across the state.

You made a difference.

• You helped stop deep budget cuts that would have devastated Oregon’s innovative and cost-effective model of long-term care.
  • More than $30 million in proposed budget cuts to Oregon’s home care workers and those they serve were restored.
  • More than $18 million in proposed budget cuts to seniors in nursing facilities that would have negatively impacted quality of care were reversed.
• You helped preserve one of Oregon’s flagship long-term care programs — Oregon Project Independence — at its current funding level that helps keep vulnerable Oregonians in their home and from entering more costly care options.
• You helped leverage millions in funding for special needs transportation to help seniors and people with disabilities stay mobile and connected in their communities.

Thanks again. Together, we can keep Oregon working and a place that respects those at the dawn, twilight and shadows of their lives despite these tough economic times.

Please stay in touch. We can be reached at 503-513-7375 or info@oregonspromise.org.

May 6 Legislative Report

May 6 Legislative Report

Agency-Proposed 30-percent Reductions in the 2009-11 Budget

Agency-Proposed 30-percent Reductions in the 2009-11 Budget

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Testimony

Agency-Proposed 30-percent Reductions in the 2009-11 Budget

Agency-Proposed 30-percent Reductions in the 2009-11 Budget

COSPD Overview House Human Services Committee 1-23-09

COSPD Overview House Human Services Committee 1-23-09

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Legislative Correspondence

Agency-Proposed 30-percent Reductions in the 2009-11 Budget

Agency-Proposed 30-percent Reductions in the 2009-11 Budget

Testimony on HB 2391

Testimony on HB 2391

Testimony to House Ways & Means Committee

Testimony to House Ways & Means Committee

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Publications

2009 Legislative Priorities

The Campaign’s 2009 Legislative Priorities

COSPD Campaign February 2009

The Campaign for Oregon’s Seniors & People with Disabilities Publication
February 2009

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