HINTS ON TESTIFYING BEFORE JOINT FINANCE

The following provides suggestions on ways to organize for the public hearings. Also see additional information at "Working with the Legislature".

1. Read the Survival Coalition's and the Wisconsin Council on Developmental Disabilities' 2001-2003 legislative initiatives to understand the funding issues that the Joint Finance Committee could respond to.
   
2. Develop a clear message that is plainly understood and conveys your clear values and concerns. What is important to you. Write a short, 2 minute or less, statement describing yourself, your situation and what programs you are interested in seeing increased funding for. Make a clear statement about what you want Joint Finance to fund.
   
3. Tell your story. It should be short but tells the listener why an issue is very important to you. How will it affect your life or the life of someone you love.
   
4. One strategy for the public hearings is to coordinate the presentations. Everyone who wishes to speak should register. If a number of people are speaking on the same issue, it is best to go up as a group with two or three people designated as the spokespeople. The Joint Finance Committee members will be able to see how many people are concerned about disability issues without hearing the same testimony from many different people. Another strategy is for the first speaker to ask everyone in the audience to stand if they came to talk about this issue. Legislators would prefer this and most likely would give the group more time. What they would not like is to have ten people at different times going up and saying the same thing. Not everyone needs to talk. But make sure the Legislators know that more than the speakers are there on your issue.
   
   The Waiting List Initiative is identifying coordinators for each of the 8 public hearings. A DAWN alert will be sent to all DAWN members letting you know the name of the coordinator for each Joint Finance Public Hearing. Call the Joint Finance Public Hearing Coordinator to organize with other disability advocates for the public hearing.
   
   
5. Make your needs clear, but do not antagonize legislators. They have the power to modify the Governor's budget, therefore we need to make sure that we have them on our side and not create animosity against community services for people with disabilities.

REMEMBER: We have the right to participate in our government. If too many people are afraid to participate, it allows just a few people to make the decisions. Showing up for an event is extremely important, whether or not you speak. Participating by being there is the most important and powerful step.