State Gov’t Raiding TRS Funds
16 10 2008(video clip still has some noise; I haven’t figured out how to remove this yet - my apologies. I’m using Roxio’s VideoWave - video editor. Hopefully next video clip this will not be an issue)
All..
South Dakota Gov’t raided TRS Fund for other non-relay uses. This can start a dominoe effect where other gov’t will find readily source of TRS funds to use for other non-relay operations. This is not good. Read the article and be on alert for greedy politicians.
Article on State Stealing TRS Fund
States need to start worrying about how to pay for VRS and IP in the future cuz that will happen one way or the other.
Unfortunately this raiding of funds to be used for other operations are all too common and happens all the time.
Way back it started with blind using TRS funds to read news over the phone for the blind - I think that was in NY. I’ve no objection to the concept, but to raid TRS funds for that; I think is simply wrong. A few years ago, Texas legislators tried that for blind people; fortunately, the decision-makers approached me and I encouraged them to get the fund from the USF, not from TRS fund. The folks listened and did just that.
Rest of you need to keep an eye on your government and make sure they don’t dip into TRS Funds!
Keep eyes open and thumbs down on requests to dip into TRS funds.
Ed
.. and in New Mexico. TRS funds were used to implement interpreter licensing.
Hubris. America - and the rest of the world - found “free money” in the housing market and financial derivatives. Everyone thought there was plenty of money out there and we could spend and borrow all we wanted.
Now, the money is gone from our savings and - in the same way - disappearing from our TRS funds. Instead of raiding the money for other uses always believing there is more “free money” when we need it, we could have used the money to provide high-speed internet to Deaf who cannot afford it and to Deaf in rural areas where broadband is VERY expensive.
The federal government is broke - huge deficits. Now we have ten digit real numbers, the FCC can dump VRS because the states can identify the origination point and terminal point of the calls.
When the FCC quits funding VRS and the states cannot afford it because the funds were raided, what will be next? Back to the TTY?
Bah!
Robert,
[smiling with you] - I think that’s just a coincidence.
Speaking of DNA recognition. In many laptops, and few gov’t agencies are already using fingerprint reader. When all the scams were at high point with Internet Relay, fingerprint reader was one of the options considered to minimize the scammed relay calls. Cries of privacy prevented that.
Back to the point, I cannot re-emphasize that raiding of Relay Funds is a serious threat especially in dwindling revenues of sales/etc that each states have to collect to support various public programs.
eyes open & thumbs up,
Ed
With the increasing use of IP-Relay and VRS, maybe there are less intrastate minutes at this time for the states to fund and as a result, the collected fees aren’t being used for their designated purposes? I don’t have any statistical information on that (state relay minutes) as well as any specific information on the funding mechanisms states use to collect TRS monies, so this is just a guess.
Of course, it will become a completely different story once states assume responsibility for regulating intrastate VRS and IP-relay calls.
Question,
It is true that traditional relay calls have taken a nose dive in call volumes. Texas had high of 650K calls a month; now it is hovering around 115K calls a month. Presumably most states had similar nose diving statistics.
Right you are - it’ll be completly different story once States take over VRS/IP.
eyes open & thumbs up,
Ed
Interesting! What is USF? It is too late for Georgia. The legislators already raided TRS fund for Hearing Aid Program two years ago.
Hope to see you next week in Atlanta!
No. Not a relay worker. Retired investor living on a pension.
TRS and state relay funds grew out of Deaf/deaf self-advocacy in the 1970s and 1980s. That community strength led to the ADA’s including TRS as a required nationwide service.
The Republicans at the FCC have warped it into a for profit Big Business. As noted above and before by many people, ten digit numbering will end federal funding and hand TRS VRS back to the States.
We must advocate for ourselves and our services. Big Business cannot do it for us.
My rant here endeth.
After learning about the SD incident few days ago through deafpulse.com. I asked someone with the State Commission for the Deaf in Minnesota and the answer I got from this person is that - this isn’t news. It has happened several times in the past in Minnesota and as recently as last year. It appears that this “raiding” already has been happening for years. I’m not happy about finding out about this just now.
Ed
It’s too late for California, as well. This year, as part of the resolution to the California budget, the Deaf and Disabled Telecommunication Program (DDTP), which funds both the California Relay Service and its equipment distribution program, was hit for $85 million. The Legislature picked an arbitrary moment to look at the dollars in the Deaf Trust Fund and cleaned it out without consideration for any current outstanding liabilities that the Program had. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which oversees the DDTP, is planning to raise the surcharge, within the boundaries allowed by California law, to restore the fund.
Winston Ching - member of the California consumer advisory committee to the CPUC on the DDTP
Ed, and others,
As Winston Ching and Minnesotoan noted above: If you leave your wallet on the table in a room full of paupers, your wallet will turn up missing or empty.
The federal government and the states are now paupers; they are broke and running huge deficits.
TRS and VRS have set up free in ways that our Deaf leaders of the last century and even the eldest generation still living could not imagine. There is no “free lunch”. If we do not pay attention to the federal and state budgets and the impact on the state and federal TRS funds, we will soon be back to asking our hearing children to make phone calls for us ….
If a Deaf person is not willing or not able to stand up for their own rights, the least each of us should do is take $5 or $10 - the price of a latte and a doughnut - out of whatever meager monthly income we have and send it to the NAD so then can advocate for us collectively.
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” (attributed to Thomas Jefferson.)
Nola Contendre,
Very appropriate last name, Nola. For you to contend with the issues ;-]
“No free lunch” is aptly labeled! I honestly think that if VRS industry does not clean up its act, and if the FCC does not start regulating, VRS very well may implode on itself. If that happens, we’ll be in a real mess that would be difficult for the FCC to correct. Not unlike what we’re seeing what happened to economy now; it literally imploded on itself so we’re in a big mess and may get into severe recession or close to depression.
eyes open & thumbs up,
Ed