PaRC members visited 25 State Legislators May 8, 2007 in Harrisburg and delivered position papers they had developed by the PaRC below.
Below, are areas of concern in the state, related to employment for persons with disabilities. The bulleted points under each section are the action requests we are asking our legislators to support.
The Commonwealth must match Federal Title I funding awarded to OVR by 21.3%. These funds are used to provide administrative and operational support to OVR, the Hiram G. Andrews Center and to provide services to OVR customers in the 21 district offices, which includes six Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services (BBVS) offices. OVR continues to draw down and utilize all available Federal Funds despite the lack of adequate state match. OVR is able to accomplish this because of the staggered State and Federal Fiscal years. The State Fiscal Year (SFY) begins in July and the Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) begins in October. Since the State and Federal fiscal years are not concurrent, OVR is able to draw more state match from the new SFY. For example, in the first quarter of the SFY, only 25% of the match should be used for the last quarter of the FFY. However, OVR is drawing 50% of the SFY funds to match the last quarter of the FFY to make up for the shortfall in the previous SFY. Continuing this practice will, sometime in the future, result in delays in payments to service providers as well as delays in authorizing services for clients and could eventually result in the return of Federal Funds. Without adequate state match, the problem only escalates. Providing OVR with an additional $5 million to match federal funds can solve this problem.
The law that established the Telecommunications Device Distribution Program under the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) which provides devices to people that are deaf or hard of hearing as well as those with motor difficulties does not allow funds to be used for the administration of the program. (The funds come from a surcharge on telephone lines.) OVR's federal funds are restricted to providing services that lead to employment. Since the state law provides services to all persons who are deaf or hard of hearing, Federal Funds cannot be used to administer the program.
At the time the final portions of this paper were being written, in federal legislation, the Senate WIA bill, S. 1021 passed the Senate under Unanimous consent. The Senate WIA bill which now is referred to under the House bill number was sent to the House waiting for conference. The main concerns the PA Rehabilitation Council (PaRC) and other disability organizations have regarding the House WIA Bill are funds would be consolidated into a block grant potentially weakening state vocational rehabilitation (VR) services to the most significantly disabled. The other concern is the funds vocational rehabilitation must commit to the One Stops (in PA, CareerLinks) infrastructure. The Senate WIA bill provides a graduated cap on infrastructure funding should the current Memoranda of Understanding fail to produce an agreement on this issue. The House bill does not. If VR funds are being used to support One Stops infrastructure, it is essential that One Stops are fully accessible to all persons with disabilities.
The PaRC fully supports the increase of funding to bring the Persons with Disabilities (PWD) program to all 65 eligible counties. The PWD program is a "by reservation only", "door-to-door" transportation service. It is designated for people who cannot ride fixed-route service due to a disability or lack of fixed-route service in their area. If requested, drivers will assist you from the door of your residence to the door of your destination.
In the 49 counties that are now part of the PWD program, 46% (the largest portion) of trips taken under that program were for employment. Transportation is critical to employment. This is a tremendous increase for a population whose unemployment status is the largest of any minority in the country.
Auditor General Jack Wagner stated in his report that providing 7.5 million dollars will fully fund the Shared Ride Program in all 67 counties. We appreciate the assembly's effort to not only increase funding from the Governor's budget of 2.84 million dollars but to fund it as a line item funded at 4.8 million dollars. SB1175 would allocate 8.7 million dollars. This would enable counties to expand hours of service, so desperately needed to assist individuals in obtaining employment. It would also allow funds for trips where crossing county lines are problematic. Finally, there is concern for people who need transportation to sheltered workshops. In some counties, those who live outside the ADA route must use the PWD program; otherwise, they have no way of getting to their worksite where they can be productive and give back to the community. At this time, the PWD program does not allow for trips to sheltered workshops.
We appreciate the unanimous support of the Senate Transportation Committee in voting it out of committee. We look forward to passage of SB1175 in the fall.
The PaRC wants to thank all legislators who took the appropriate action to support the funding of the Pennsylvania Initiative on Assistive Technology (PIAT). This action has allowed PIAT to improve and expand its services. PIAT is the Commonwealth's statewide, cross-age and cross-disability program under the Assistive Technology Act. PIAT's activities include the development, implementation, and monitoring of laws, policies, practices, and organizational structures to improve access to assistive technology for all Pennsylvanians with disabilities and older Pennsylvanians. PIAT also operates the PA Assistive Technology Lending Library.
The Lending Library is an important way for Pennsylvanians with disabilities to identify and "test drive" devices that can help them in their pursuit of employment and independent living, so that appropriate purchases can be made. New equipment and devices will be able to be obtained with the funding that was provided.