Recommendation uses faulty info

To the editor:

When the report and recommendations of the Missouri State Government Review Commission were posted on the Internet this week, many in the disabled community were dismayed by what they read.

Recommendation No. 41 stated that having the not-for-profit independent living centers provide consumer-directed in-home services to the disabled community costs twice as much as traditional services provided by other in-home service vendors. In fact, the opposite is true. Consumer-directed in-home services provided by the independent living centers actually costs the taxpayers a minimum of $2 an hour less than all other in-home services.

Disability advocates are greatly concerned that a private in-home service provider is taking an active role in deciding the fate of not-for-profit independent living centers that are providing consumer-directed personal-care assistance to people with disabilities.

The commission's apparent lack of understanding of this program, and the subsequent grossly inaccurate claims made in recommendation No. 41, led many to wonder about the integrity of the entire review process and if any of the report findings can be trusted in light of this fact.

MIKI GUDERMUTH, Cape Girardeau