Letter: State punishing families by cutting handicapped funds

Wednesday, Oct. 23, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Nevada's proposed FY-1998/99 budget for Community Training Centers and Community Residential programs for the mentally retarded falls, as usual, far short of the mark. Nevada has a huge operating surplus, but far too little money is always budgeted to help people with a condition that affects one in 10 families in this state.

As a taxpayer, advocate for the mentally retarded, and mother of a son with mental retardation, I am outraged. People who need vocational training, jobs and housing are put on a waiting list for years because of the state's seeming indifference to the hardships of these people's families. I waited for three years for the state to approve placement of my son in a program at Opportunity Village Association for Retarded Citizens. Our case is the rule, not the exception.

The state needs to realize the burden placed on families and taxpayers alike, who support these people until the state says it's all right for them to go to work. More money needs to be allocated in the FY-1998/99 budget to help people lead normal, productive lives to whatever degree possible.

Actually, it needs to be allocated today.

Linda Smith,

Opportunity Village director of marketing and development