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http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/local/13045266.htm
Money required by law to pay for services for the deaf instead has been used by the Alabama Public Service Commission to pay for a phone line for the blind as well, and the dual use of the revenue has drawn a protest.
Tom Mills, a blind Cullman man, said he does not dispute the value of the phone line for the blind, but he said getting funds for it from the deaf program is in conflict with state law.
"They have hustled the deaf program for $260,000, and I don't like it," Mills told the Mobile Register in a story Monday.
PSC spokesman Clark Bruner said the commission has temporarily halted the funding arrangement to review it.
At issue are two programs: A relay line that allows deaf people to type out responses and comments during a telephone conversation, which an operator reads to the call's recipient; and Newsline, a national program that allows blind people to call in to a phone center to hear news articles read from daily publications.
The PSC, which collects a 15-cent monthly usage fee from traditional landline customers to run the relay line, raised about $4.3 million in 2002, when the line cost about $2.15 million to operate and had a $9 million balance, the Register said.
Money raised for the relay line is to be used "solely for the administration of this system," according to the Alabama law that created the line for deaf users.
But in 2002, Newsline was established through a joint resolution of the legislature as a five-year pilot program for the blind to be run by the PSC, which created a grant program to fund it. In its first year, Newsline received $60,000 in relay line funds, and $50,000 a year the remaining four years, according to Mills.
Judy McLean, a PSC staff member who is chairwoman of the board overseeing the relay system, said legislation is being prepared that would allow money generated by the 15-cent monthly fee to support other programs for disabled people.
Mills has written e-mails to the commission about the matter over several months.
"I am always concerned when affected citizens raise issues about programs supported by the commission," PSC President Jim Sullivan wrote in an e-mail response dated Oct. 14. "I accordingly intend to investigate the claims raised in your Oct. 10, 2005, e-mail more thoroughly."
Money required by law to pay for services for the deaf instead has been used by the Alabama Public Service Commission to pay for a phone line for the blind as well, and the dual use of the revenue has drawn a protest.
Tom Mills, a blind Cullman man, said he does not dispute the value of the phone line for the blind, but he said getting funds for it from the deaf program is in conflict with state law.
"They have hustled the deaf program for $260,000, and I don't like it," Mills told the Mobile Register in a story Monday.
PSC spokesman Clark Bruner said the commission has temporarily halted the funding arrangement to review it.
At issue are two programs: A relay line that allows deaf people to type out responses and comments during a telephone conversation, which an operator reads to the call's recipient; and Newsline, a national program that allows blind people to call in to a phone center to hear news articles read from daily publications.
The PSC, which collects a 15-cent monthly usage fee from traditional landline customers to run the relay line, raised about $4.3 million in 2002, when the line cost about $2.15 million to operate and had a $9 million balance, the Register said.
Money raised for the relay line is to be used "solely for the administration of this system," according to the Alabama law that created the line for deaf users.
But in 2002, Newsline was established through a joint resolution of the legislature as a five-year pilot program for the blind to be run by the PSC, which created a grant program to fund it. In its first year, Newsline received $60,000 in relay line funds, and $50,000 a year the remaining four years, according to Mills.
Judy McLean, a PSC staff member who is chairwoman of the board overseeing the relay system, said legislation is being prepared that would allow money generated by the 15-cent monthly fee to support other programs for disabled people.
Mills has written e-mails to the commission about the matter over several months.
"I am always concerned when affected citizens raise issues about programs supported by the commission," PSC President Jim Sullivan wrote in an e-mail response dated Oct. 14. "I accordingly intend to investigate the claims raised in your Oct. 10, 2005, e-mail more thoroughly."