James Coburn
EDMOND — Hundreds of angry Oklahoma seniors rallied at the state Capitol Rotunda Wednesday morning, demanding an immediate end to cuts in senior nutrition programs. Speakers were often interrupted by seniors calling for action today.
Department of Human Services budget cuts forced Edmond’s senior nutrition program to a halt on Sunday.
“I understand why seniors are angry, and they should be,” Mayor Patrice Douglas told The Edmond Sun. “Edmond residents should not just be angry, they should be outraged.”
Legislators reduced the DHS budget by $9 million for the remaining eight months of this fiscal year. Project Director Barbara Sparkman wrote in a letter to Edmond Senior Center Executive Director Gail Deaton that $7.4 million of this cut was taken from the Aging Services Division of the state.
A budget cut of $173,000 diminished the Oklahoma County Senior Nutrition Program. Edmond’s senior nutrition program was cut by $53,000, enough to eliminate the program.
“There are 27 sites in this four-county area,” Douglas said. “Edmond was one site. One site out of 27 took all of the cuts.
“We have not heard a satisfactory explanation yet,” she said.
Edmond’s Republican delegation was not able to attend the rally because of the Republican caucus that was already scheduled in Claremore, said Angie LaPlante, assistant to state Rep. Ken Miller, R-Edmond.
Douglas said that Miller along with Sen. Clark Jolley and Rep. Marian Cooksey have been pressing for this issue to be resolved.
Douglas said she believes that Edmond being an affluent community was the basis for the decision to cut services here. About 350 seniors, 4.3 percent of the population, live in poverty in Edmond, according to the U.S. census.
“If they make cuts, Edmond is willing to take their fair share,” Douglas said. “We’re not willing to take everybody else’s share.”
Last year, the Edmond Senior Center was feeding 85 seniors a day before the program was capped at 65 meals a day, Deaton said.
Thirty-five to 40 people brought their own lunches to the senior center on Monday, she said. “Today ... almost everybody brought lunch.”
The senior nutrition program has been at the Edmond Senior Center since 1997, Deaton said.
DHS receives 85 percent federal funding and 15 percent state funding. Deaton said these seniors pay taxes like everybody else.
“There is no reason why they should be discriminated against because they sit in a more affluent part of the county. That doesn’t make them more affluent.
“We pull as far away as Piedmont, Luther and Guthrie,” she said. “It’s open to any senior over the age of 60. They’ve paid their federal taxes. They’ve paid their state taxes.”
Secretary of State Susan Savage told the crowd at Wednesday’s rally that Gov. Brad Henry is committed to finding a solution for the senior nutrition crisis.
Every state agency experienced across-the-board 7 percent cuts due to revenue shortages, Savage said. The Legislature went in session last year facing nearly a $650 million shortfall, mostly due to falling oil and gas prices.
State Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, said Wednesday that top administrative staff at the Department of Human Services received almost $200,000 in pay raises in the past year before the agency cut senior nutrition programs.
Since July, every state agency has taken an additional 5 percent budget reduction, Savage said.
Democrats and Republicans must come together to find a solution, said Sean Voskul of Edmond, AARP Oklahoma associate state director. Seniors can’t wait to be fed until the next fiscal year begins in July, he said.
Voskul said money could be tapped from the state’s $600 million Rainy Day Fund to resolve the $7.4 million in senior nutrition cuts. Using the Rainy Day Fund takes legislative action.
“The governor told me … he is committed to restoring money to this program if the speaker of the House and the president pro tem will agree they will take the money out of the Rainy Day Fund,” said state Sen. Kenneth Corn, D-Howe.
Corn asked that seniors and their advocates contact their lawmakers to demand that senior nutrition cuts be restored.
Shirley Jackson said many of her friends at the Edmond Senior Center depend on the meals.
“That’s the only outing for some of the senior citizens that come for the meals,” she said. “They can exercise and play games. It’s just a wonderful thing for them.”
Gay Nell Mead of Logan County Aging Services said she’s afraid the cuts Edmond seniors are taking also will be made in Logan County.
“It’s really unfair because I work for seniors and I clean houses for them,” she said. “People, some of them got their meal cut. And lot of them, that’s the only meal they rely on as a hot meal for them.”
Many of Oklahoma’s seniors go without meals, Voskul said. Nutrition site employees are being furloughed while others limit the days they provide meals.
“In Edmond they’re making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for people coming in,” he said. “It’s awful. The moral test of government is how we take care of people in the twilight of their life.”
jcoburn@edmondsun.com | 341-2121, ext. 114
