Fw: You Raised Your Voices and They Were Heard!!

[Tom Bird]

As stated below, thanks for your recent past efforts. The battle is not over, however, as there will be joint budget reconciliation discussions between the Governor's off ice and the Legislature. We need to ensure that our legislators, similarly, reject the 298 program, and support adequate funding of the system.


Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad

Begin forwarded message:

On Friday, October 4, 2019, 3:53 PM, Ed Diegel <ddadv...@gmail.com> wrote:

Please see a note from Robert Sheeran below. The work that you did last week to express opposition to the proposed "298 " budget language was successful!!!

Congratulations to each of you!!....................

Advocacy partners,

We want to take this opportunity to thank you for the advocacy that you, and thousands of our allies, demonstrated over the past two weeks around our collective efforts to urge the Governor to veto Section 298. This kind of grass-roots advocacy, when well organized and focused as it was with this veto effort, can overcome the influence of the money wielded by our political opponents. To get a sense of the volume of allies who spoke out, the Governor’s office reported that Section 298 was, by far, the topic about which her office received the greatest number phone calls and e-mails over the past several weeks. Impressive.

 

Similarly, but what can be lost in the furor over 298, is that the dramatically increased Medicaid mental health and substance use disorder funding in the FY 2020 budget and the beginning of the process to end of the local match draw down requirement (returning local dollars to the CMH system) were all supported by the Governor and the State Legislature. While not as high profile as the 298 veto campaign, your advocacy on these issues and that of our allies, over the past several years, prompted the inclusion of these items in the budget and prevented their veto.

 

So, while we know that the fight between those of us committed to the public system (and committed to those who rely upon it) and those who see our system simply as another market from which to draw profits, is not over, we take a moment to celebrate the power of a principle-based advocacy effort that is well articulated, focused, supported by smart technology and a vast network of partnership, and driven by passion for and solidarity around our cause.

 

 

Robert Sheehan

Chief Executive Officer
Community Mental Health Association of Michigan
426 South Walnut Street, Lansing MI 48933
Phone: (517) 374-6848 Fax: (517) 374-1053
cmham.org

 

--

Ed Diegel,
Advocates for Persons with Developmental Disabilities in Wayne County.
ddadv...@gmail.com