Advocates for the deaf and hearing-impaired are suing Alabama officials for trying to divert millions of dollars away from a special fund and into the budget for public schools.

 

The legal fight is over $30 million in the Alabama Dual Party Relay Fund, which was established in 1988 to help deaf and hearing-impaired Alabamans use the telephone. The program also trains interpreters in American Sign Language and provides a reading service for the blind. However, earlier this year he state legislature passed a law that allows the monies in the Fund to be used for “other purposes.”

 

According to the lawsuit filed by the trustees of the Dual Party Relay Fund, the Alabama Public Service Commission is planning to “seize private funds for public use without legal authority and just compensation.” The plaintiffs claim the legislature is complicit in the seizure, having given its blessing to the shift.

 

The bill to divert the funds for the deaf was sponsored in the Alabama House of Representatives by State Rep. Jay Love (R-Montgomery) and promoted by Gov. Robert Bentley. Supporters of the law argue that the rise of email and text messaging has made the use of telephones by the deaf and hearing-impaired a matter of less urgency.

-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Deaf Alabamans Fight State's Money Grab (by Dan McCue, Courthouse News Service)

Board Sues to Stop Transfer of $30 Million to Education Budget (by Sebastian Kitchen, South union Street)