Driscoll and Bartlett Against Larrabee Village Cuts

It appears someone does actually read this blog. Okay, maybe a couple someones.

Anyway, State Representative Tom Driscoll (D-Westbrook) sent me the text of his remarks from yesterday's hearing concerning the Department of Health and Human Services budget. I'll save you from reading Rep. Driscoll's testimony in its entirety (you're welcome), but will say that he spoke against the cuts in the DHHS budget directly affecting the residents of Larrabee Village. I'm not a speechwriter, but I thought this portion was especially poignant and deserves consideration:

Many of them have endured great sacrifice and struggle (sic) living through
The Great Depression and WWII. It is because of their strength, their resolve
and their commitment to our State and Country that we now enjoy those things
that might never have been, had they not persevered during those trying times.
They are referred to as our “Greatest Generation”.

Rep. Driscoll also referred me to the letter he and State Senator Phil Bartlett (D-Cumberland) sent to Governor Baldacci concerning the proposed cuts. That can be read here.

- John C.L. Morgan

Larrabee Seniors--Live and Kicking!

According to the American Journal, about twenty-five residents of Larrabee Village boarded a bus this morning en route to Augusta to protest Governor Baldacci's proposed cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services. To listen to the public hearing they were planning to attend, click here and click on the "Appropriations & Financial Services" link to the left. State Senator Joseph Brannigan (D-Cumberland) is the only Westbrook representative on either the Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs or the Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services Committee.

The meeting just started, and it sounds like there's a full house.

- John C.L. Morgan

Westbrook Housing Director Pens Op-Ed

John G. Gallagher, the executive director of the Westbrook Housing Authority, wrote an op-ed in today's Portland Press Herald decrying Governor Baldacci's proposed spending cuts for the Department of Health and Human Services. Specifically, Gallagher writes the proposed cuts would adversely affect residents of the Authority's Larrabee Village. To read Gallagher's editorial in its entirety, click here. And to read a similar story the American Journal ran last week (in fact, Gallagher's editorial features the same seniors as Leslie Bridgers's story), click here.

- John C.L. Morgan