An important tool when speaking with legislators and staff on a coordinated lobby day is talking points which ensure that all participants are covering the same topics in similar fashion. This allows the full legislature to have heard similar issues from constituents throughout the day. The Legislative Affairs Committee developed a theme for the 2005 lobby day of long-term, stable system funding. Below are suggested discussion areas for a dedicated drug and alcohol (D&A) funding initiative to shore up current funding for five D&A line-items in the state budget.
Impacts
to Your Organization
The D&A system has been vulnerable for some time. Under the current annual
budget process, one swipe of a pen, so to speak, could drastically reduce
D&A funding in Pennsylvania; this was dramatically demonstrated during
the 2003/04 proposed state budget. Even though dollars were eventually restored,
many programs were either cut back or closed. Following that D&A budget
crisis PCPA, along with other statewide stakeholders, vowed to "never
again" allow this to occur in the D&A system. One measure to stabilizing
the D&A system is to shore up the funding in the current D&A line-items.
Also feel free to discuss what impact the proposed 2003/04 state budget cuts had on your organization...and whether or not your organization realized the 2% COLA in the 2004/05 state budget. Regardless of whether or not the COLA reached your organization, be sure to thank the legislators for their efforts to include this funding for D&A in last year’s budget.
If your organization does not provide D&A services we ask that you move to the highlights listed below and support the D&A dedicated funding initiative during your legislative visits.
Points to Highlight During Legislative Visits
- There currently exists an 18% tax on wine and liquor in Pennsylvania commonly known as the Johnstown Flood Tax. We propose to take 75% of the revenues from that tax and create a fund called the Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Prevention (DATP) Fund.
- Revenue from the current Johnstown Flood Tax goes to the state’s General Fund budget for expenditures. The DATP Fund proposal is revenue-neutral. That is, money in the DATP Fund would be funneled to the current line-items for D&A...but the money currently allocated directly from the state budget for the line-items would remain in the General Fund budget. Thus, having the dedicated revenue source written into law ensures that the DATP Fund continues thereby continuing D&A funding from year to year.
- This is a win/win for both the D&A community and the commonwealth: there is a secure funding source for D&A services (from a revenue source that has increased each year for the past ten years); the commonwealth does not lose a significant revenue source; and the alcohol industry can demonstrate a commitment to assisting citizens who have problems with the product they produce (and that, in essence, the commonwealth promotes).
- A co-sponsorship memo for this legislation has been circulating in the House and Senate, respectively. Thank your legislator if s/he has signed on to the legislation. If s/he has not yet signed on in support, ask them to do so today.
