I almost forgot
that the reason I started writing about the Faso-Collins Amendment
was to outline the Otsego County Board's actions before and during
the July meeting, regarding a resolution to support the Amendment.
Ed Frazier, of
Unadilla, brought the support resolution to the Administration
Committee, where that kind of thing is debated and approved. Ed and
I are both on Admin. Ed felt – and still feels – strongly that
the kind of unfunded mandate that the county Medicaid payments
represent is an egregious injustice and must be addressed. I agree
with him entirely.
However, as noted
below, I do not think the Amendment will do that; in fact, I think it
will do the opposite. So I voted against it in the Administration
Committee, after an extensive debate. The other four members voted
for it, so it was put on the full Board agenda for the July meeting.
On the full Board
agenda, the resolution was listed as coming from the Administration
Committee, with the names of all five members, even though I voted
against it in committee. This is the way it is always done, and has
always been done, for every resolution that comes from a committee.
Whether you voted for it, or against it, or weren't even there, your
names goes on the full Board resolution. My apologies to all who
were confused by this.
As you probably
know, a great many citizens, many of them professionals in the fields
that are impacted by this Amendment, came to the full Board meeting
and every one spoke against it – eloquently, with passion and
precision. Thank you all.
The resolution was
pulled from the Consent Agenda (all the resolutions that no one wants
to debate or ask questions about, and which are voted on en masse)
so it could be debated. Then the Chair of the Administration
Committee, Craig Gelbsman, polled the members of Admin, who voted,
4-1, to pull the resolution from the full Board agenda permanently.
Ed Frazier voted 'no,' meaning he'd still like to debate and vote on
it. Ed has said, and I fully believe him, that his approach to this
resolution was to address the unfunded mandate, and was completely
unrelated to the ACHA.
Nevertheless,
Otsego County will not go on record as supporting a cynical,
manipulative amendment to a terrible, destructive Federal bill,
thanks, no doubt, to the outpouring of citizen opinion.
So – democracy!
Cool, eh?
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