The single most important aspect of the committee’s proposed FY13 budget, Pacheco said, is a line item stipulating that 45 inpatient beds stay in Taunton. The Senate’s version, as it stands now, means that the Taunton mental-health facility will remain open “into the future,” Pacheco said.

State Sen. Stephen Brewer, D-Barre, who chairs the Ways and Means committee, said he’s ready “to listen and digest the information” next week regarding a bed quota at Taunton State, but otherwise declined to elaborate. “Discussions are ongoing,” Brewer said.

But he added that he’s worked with Pacheco toward keeping Taunton State Hospital afloat — particularly after a foot tour the two men took of the facility on Good Friday last month.

“I was very moved by the dedicated workers I met and the plight of the patients there,” Brewer said. “I had a two-hour drive home, and those people stayed in my mind.”

 

On Friday July 20, members and friends of Council 93 will hit the links at Mt. Hood Golf Course in Melrose, MA for a tournament aimed at helping members of the AFSCME family meet the high cost of a college education.  All proceeds of the 6th Annual M. Michael Botelho Golf Tournament…

More than 5,200 homecare workers in Vermont stand to gain better wages, benefits and  through an AFSCME International organizing campaign currently underway in the Green Mountain state. The more than 5200 caregivers provide Medicaid-funded, in-home services to children and adults with developmental and physical disabilities. Since January, caregivers have come…