Colorado Amendment 51

I am a mom of a 20 year old young man with Angelman Syndrome and a Spinal Cord Injury that happened during surgery in Children's Hospital in 2002.
In Colorado on the November 2008 Ballot, there is a citizen's initiative that will end the waitlists for more than 12,000 people that are developmentally disabled who usually require lifelong support and sometimes 24/7 care. These waitlists continue to grow as more children are diagnosed each day.
If this amendment does not pass, this problem will not go away but will only get worse. Before the 2008 Legislative Session, an Interim Committee on Long-term Health Care Services and Supports for Persons with Developmental Disabilities took public testimony and presentations for proposals from families and advocates, and professionals who support this population. From this committee came 8 bills. The one bill that would have ended the waitlist was pulled from the committee at the last minute because the legislators knew that the state could not support the funding to meet this need. Because in Colorado, voters said yes on a constitutional amendment for a 6 percent spending limit known as Tabor. I do not know of another state with this type of law. Colorado's spending limit straps our legislators so that they are unable to carry on the people's business for which we elect them. One legislator put it this way..."It's like putting on the gas and the brakes at the same time". This is true in Colorado. We are 46th in the nation! We MUST help people with real needs and especially one of our most vulnerable populations! There are anti-tax crusaders who oppose this amendment. I'm sorry, but it's true! It's disheartening when Colorado could pave the way and become an example for the rest of the nation by ending this crisis. There are waiting lists in most every state. Colorado's 12,000, New Mexico's 8,000, Pennsylvania's 21,000, Kansas' 12,000....and it goes on. These folks have basic needs. In Colorado 9,600 individuals have parents who are 60 years old and older. They are worried about what will happen to their adult children once they are no longer able to care for them. If the parent dies, what then? This is a grassroots movement and an important measure for the voters of Colorado to decide whether or not these children and adults are a priority in this state.