A group of senior citizens from Bradford is heading to
Harrisburg to let lawmakers know how they feel about long-term care
and lottery revenues.
Under AARP’s platform of “Divided We Fail,” the group of 44 will
leave today from the Greater Bradford Senior Activity Center to
participate in the AARP Lobby Day on Tuesday in Harrisburg. They
will be part of approximately 1,500 seniors statewide.
“If we didn’t go, there would be 44 less,” said Clair Butler,
president of the senior center. “We wanted to make sure there’d be
enough people there … and try to get the message across.”
That message is twofold:
-ðto advocate for new legislation which defines and regulates
assisted living as a separate form of long-term care in
Pennsylvania and
– to advocate for the use of lottery revenues to support
programs benefiting older Pennsylvanians in the 2007-08 budget.
The group plans to meet with state Rep. Martin Causer,
R-Turtlepoint, and may meet with state Sen. Joe Scarnati,
R-Brockway.
Butler explained that not much is set aside from the state to
help assisted living and many older Pennsylvanians can’t afford it
on their own.
“The governor’s proposed budget is using $250 million for
long-term care,” Butler said. “Out of that, 70 percent is used for
nursing homes. That kind of leaves assisted living in left field
not getting as much.
“People just don’t have the money. Everybody’s budget is
down.”
The seniors are also concerned with what is happening with
lottery revenues. The governor is using the funds from the lottery
for other programs and not for the elderly, which was the original
purpose of the Pennsylvania Lottery.
“What Gov. Rendell has done, he is using a lot of money from
lottery revenue to support Medicare long-term funding.”
AARP had similar concerns last year when Rendell released his
budget. The AARP wanted the additional funding realized when
legislation coordinating PACE and PACENET with the federal Medicare
D program was enacted at a savings of $170 million to go to the
OPTIONS program which its emphasis on home and community-based
services.
The governor, however, placed the entire amount of the savings
into the Medicaid budget dedicated to long-term care.
According to the AARP, the lottery funds, in essence, replaced
$170 million of general funds in the Medicaid budget and was spent
elsewhere.
“We don’t like that. We don’t like that at all,” Butler
said.
The Pennsylvania Lottery was established in 1971 with the
primary purpose to generate funds to benefit programs for
Pennsylvania’s older residents. Pennsylvania’s Lottery remains the
only lottery in the nation that exclusively targets all of its
proceeds to programs for older residents. By law, the lottery must
contribute 30 cents for each $1 earned to the programs.
McKean County received a total of $9,835,398 from the lottery
during fiscal year 2005-06. This is broken down as follows:
– $5,674,896 to lottery winners;
-ð$492,536 for retain commissions;
– $873,271 to area agencies on aging and senior centers;
-ð$2,140,695 to PACE/PCENET (pharmaceutical assistance);
-ð$52,000 to shared & free ride programs; and
-ð$602,000 for Property Tax and Rent Rebates
Butler said they also want the lawmakers to vote for any bill
that comes up for senior citizens out of the lottery system – “for
the reason it was originally set up for.”
Another group from Bradford took a similar trip two years ago.
Butler said they won’t make the same mistake of wearing an orange
T-shirt. Since Rendell is a graduate of Syracuse (N.Y.) University,
many wore orange, the school’s color.
This year they will be wearing red.
