Legislative Advocacy Items to Watch

Legislative Advocacy Items

US Congress - Senior and Adult Protective Services

The Elder Justice Coalition of which the ARA is a member reports that for the first time a committee of the Congress has marked up and passed unanimously an Elder Justice Act for consideration by the full House of Representative. Below are short summaries of the bills. Passage of this legislation is akin to gaining a line item for Adult Protective Service in the State of Ohio budget. This is a first step in recognizing the issues of abuse and neglect as we age. Call your Congressional Representative and ask for swift passage.

Elder Justice Act HR 1783 would amend the Social Security Act to enhance the social security of the Nation by ensuring adequate public-private infrastructure and to resolve to prevent, detect, treat, intervene in, and prosecute elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR01783:@@@L&summ2=m&

Elder Abuse Victims Act of 2008 H.R.5352 would protect seniors in the United States from elder abuse by establishing specialized elder abuse prosecution and research programs and activities to aid victims of elder abuse, to provide training to prosecutors and other law enforcement related to elder abuse prevention and protection, and for other purposes. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z? d110:HR05352:@@@L&summ2=m&

Ohio General Assembly - Ohio Income Tax Phase Out Proposed

A proposal to eliminate the Ohio income tax, currently 43% of state revenue, was recently introduce as HB534 into the General Assembly. The news media have lightly reported on this as an election year gimmick aimed at bolstering the fiscal conservative base. The reality is that Ohio’s school funding mechanism currently relies on the income tax to make primary and secondary community college, and university education competitive with other states. The education of our grandchildren is at stake.

The property tax rollback for homeowners over 65 is funded through the income tax. Another large budget item funded through the income tax is the Medicaid budget. Ohio uses the revenue generated by the income tax to purchase Medicaid dollars from the federal treasury. Elimination of the income would seriously erode the ability of the state to support retirees and senior needing nursing and care services in their own home and would eliminate access to nursing homes for most Ohioans. The proposal would jeapordize funding of the Ohio Department of Aging and all its various programs like meals on wheel, senior activity centers and staff, PASSPORT, and Adult Protective Services, which implement the Older Americans Act. This is an emerging advocacy issue to watch.