LET’S TALK — PEF members meet in Albany with state legislators and their staff about state budget issues. Shown, above, are Frank Besser, Paula Hennessy, Ron Greene, Bill Zhe and Christina Curran, legislative analyst for Sen. Stephen Saland. Below are Bob Purtell, Nithia Chatterjie, Darvin Varon, Sen. Thomas Libous, and PEF Vice Presidents Pat Baker and Ken Brynien. — Photos by Sherry Halbrook
Lawmakers join in opposing OMH closings
PEF activists lobby key legislators on budget
By SHERRY HALBROOK
Shaping state budget policy is a high priority for PEF, and the union has had increasing success in recent years, thanks to the skillful and coordinated efforts of members and staff in educating state legislators and the public about state services and how budget decisions could affect them.
In March, approximately 50 PEF activists came to Albany to meet with legislators on this year’s budget issues.
“First, our activists reviewed the key budget issues, PEF’s positions on these issues and the reasons why,” says PEF Vice President and Political Action Chair Ken Brynien. “Then, members met in small groups with the chairs, ranking members or staff of the Assembly and Senate committees responsible for acting on those issues.”
“The best news of the day was undoubtedly the response from state Sen. Thomas Libous, chair of the Senate Mental Health and Mental Retardation Committee,” Brynien says. “He told us that the Republican majority in the Senate agrees with PEF on our most crucial budget item this year — that Hutchings and Middletown Psychiatric Centers should remain open and that the four children’s psychiatric centers must not be relocated onto campuses for adult services.”
Assembly Committee on Mental Health Chair Martin Luster told the PEF activists that his committee also opposes closing the centers and moving the children’s programs.
“Our activists reported very good meetings with the legislators and staff,” says PEF Legislative Director Brian Curran.
For example, members who met with Sen. Michael Nozzolio, chair of the Senate Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections, said he was interested in discussing the need to expand educational programs for inmates.
The conversation shifted more toward drug-counseling programs when they met with the chair of the Assembly Committee on Correction, Jeffrion Aubry. PEF members provide both educational and drug-counseling services in the prisons and the union wants these programs to receive more budget support.
Other meetings focused on budget issues at the state Division of Parole, the state Office of Children and Family Services, Mental Retardation, Transportation and Education.
“We always give the legislators fact sheets summarizing our main budget issues and concerns,” Brynien says.
“When you combine these meetings with our committee testimony, advertising campaigns, rallies, and more meetings, calls and letters to the lawmakers, most of them get a pretty clear idea of where we stand on the issues, our priorities and our reasons,” Brynien says. “But we can’t let up until a budget is in place.”
“Although the budget is supposed to be adopted before April 1, that hasn’t happened for many years,” Curran says. “So our members should contact their Assembly member and senator at least once a month to ask for their support. Tell the legislator to express that support in a letter to his or her party’s leaders in that house.”