Forest and Edie represented CSP staff and board. Erin Martin attended for the Crawford County Independent. Conversation was top notch with biting critiques flying wantonly and Senator Shilling barely concealing her absolute contempt for nearly every part of the budget (ever the optimist however, Jennifer did find one small part that was good: a portion that improved dental care access for impoverished and under-served areas.) Perhaps ten citizens got to at least pop in briefly and make a comment to our kindly senator.
Discussion focused mainly on the budget and its likely effects to our environment and our educational system. Jennifer will do what she can, and she says it is important to pressure our other elected representatives to stand up for us on key parts, but she also said that the governor generally gets over 80% of their proposal… Hopefully enough republicans are so turned off by the presidential posturing and obvious lack of concern for this state and what we have valued for decades that they will buck this trend. Much depends on We the People and how much noise we make about the things we care about.