People of Faith CT

WHAT WE ARE ASKING YOU TO DO:
1. Call your state Representative and Senator, NOW! If you don't know who they are click here http://www.cga.ct.gov/maps/townlist.asp
2. Tell them to restore the $2.5 million to the AIDS Service line in the DPH budget (you can personalize what that loss would mean to you/your agency), people with AIDS are NOT expendable!
3. Get 5 people from your life/agency/church/staff/board to do the same!
4. Come to the DSS (February 18th, 4PM, Room 2C) and DPH budget hearings (February 20th, 3 PM, Room 2C). Wear your GOT AIDS? t-shirt. Let me know if you'd like to testify.

ACT UP FIGHT BACK!! ACTION = LIFE! SILENCE = DEATH!

Peace,

Shawn M. Lang
Director of Public Policy
CT AIDS Resource Coalition
Phone: 860.761.6699

Background Info:

Governor Rell put forth her budget and we were outraged to see that she proposes cutting $2.5 million from the AIDS Service line.

The Governor is playing a dangerous shell game with her rationale for cutting these funds. She's saying that "In the 2008 legislative session additional funds were added in anticipation of a reduction of federal Ryan White funding. It is anticipated that federal funds...will remain at pre-existing levels, therefore additional funding is not anticipated to be needed."

We all know that there WAS a loss of Ryan White funding and that there is no hope at this point that we will see any significant increases in Ryan White funds!

After getting slammed with a loss of $3.3 million in federal Ryan White funding in 2007, the state legislature added $2.5 million to the AIDS budget to mitigate that loss. Additionally, Congress appropriated $1.7 million in stop gap funding for the Hartford and New Haven areas to lessen the blow of the loss of those funds. Even with this increase, 37% of those living with HIV/AIDS in our state's capitol still do not receive any services. Those federal funds are scheduled to end on February 28, 2009. Even if the federal funding continues, the $2.5 loss puts us back to 1998 funding levels. For a little perspective, in 1998 there were 5,977 PLWHIV/AIDS; today there are 10,860 and those numbers are increasing every day.