ACTION ALERT – Your phone calls are needed to preserve funding!
Posted on: 02.15.11
Funding for Georgia’s domestic violence and sexual assault programs is in serious jeopardy. YOU can help make a difference by making a few key phone calls to State Senators before FRIDAY of THIS WEEK.
The Georgia Senate Appropriations Committee is set to vote THIS WEEK on funding for Georgia domestic violence and sexual assault programs. This is our PRIMARY CHANCE to get Senators to reinstate state funds to domestic violence and sexual assault programs in the Fiscal Year 2011 Amended budget.
We desperately need all advocates and allies to make phone calls THIS WEEK to the following State Senators:
- Senator Jack Hill, Chair of Senate Appropriations – (404) 656-5038
- Senator Chip Rogers, Senate Majority Leader – (404) 463-1378
- Senator Tommie Williams, President Pro Tempore – (404) 656-0089
- The State Senator who serves your district – you can find contact information HERE
When each Senator’s office answers the phone, say:
- Hello, my name is ________. I am a constituent from __(name the county in which you live)___.
- I am calling to urge Senator ___(name)____ to restore state funding for domestic violence and sexual assault programs in the Fiscal Year 2011 Amended budget.
- Eliminating ALL state funds to Georgia’s domestic violence and sexual assault centers and replacing them with TANF funds is NOT a viable solution, because TANF funding is much more restrictive and cannot be used the way that state funding can.
- If state funding is eliminated, it would mean that Georgia has NO state dollar investment in the domestic violence and sexual assault services that have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Georgians in the last decade alone.
To read up on the details of how this dramatic change in funding could impact victims and the programs that serve them, please click HERE.
Thank you for your support on this very important issue! We cannot preserve funding without YOUR VOICE!
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I was going down my list making phone calls to Senator’s, emailing them as well, when I had the opportunity to speak with Allison from Senator Heath’s office.
I asked Allison if the Senator was aware of the proposed state budget cut and she advised he was AND that she had just sat in on a meeting whereby this issue was on the table in discussion. Allison went on to say that there was discussion among the Senator’s that the TANF funding would be a viable solution as far as they could see IF “some” of the restrictions were lifted.
I advised her this would NOT be a viable solution eve if some of the restrictions were lifted and I began to list reasons from the GCADV website.
I asked her to please pull my email and let Senator Heath see it, so he could be completely aware of all of the issues involved with this proposed budget cut.
I didn’t know if the GCADV was aware of this latest discussion. If you were not, I wanted to make you aware because undoubtedly, the Senator’s need phone calls advising them as to WHY federal funding would not be a viable solution even if “some” of the restrictions were lifted.
Many thanks for all that you do on behalf of the victims in Georgia.
Diane Ochoa