i ll lay out the biggest financial issue with the money going to the Gen fund opposed to staying with MDCH as we voted for.
ok, lets hypothesize the Dept has a problem. Lets further hypothesize it is an issue with, oh let's say the printer/s.
Now, We put the Authority and the money for the program into the one department to run. So printer has problems, Department has the personal and finances from the Registry funds to be fully self reliant. They see the Issue, get it diagnosed, a solution is determined, and solution is implemented. This can be done efficiently, with minimal time wasted, and minimal financial drain on the funds while solving the issue, as the entire process is handled with in it's Own Department as outlined.
One office, had all the means at its disposal, just as the Act was passed, to fully run the program from beginning to end with No fuss no muss.
Now lets look at what happens in the same scenario when the funds are moved to the General Fund of the State, and the authority to make program decisions is removed from the MDCH.
Actually, just a look back at over the last year of time will show us exactly how it was handled...
So, the issue was noted. MMMP has to inform LARA of the issue. Issue needs to be Diagnosed. LARA arranges Tech to investigate issue and find a solution. Solution is found and given to LARA. We can guesstimate this took a week or two, just to get the tech to check the issue out.
After 2 or more weeks of LARA meetings to determine most fiscally inexpensive way to the solution, A decision is made to buy new printers to solve issue.
LARA submits request for monies to buy said new printer, from the State Appropriations Committee. This takes an additional month or more of time to investigate the need for a new Printer, to legitimize its need with a few days of hearings from the personal at LARA making the financial request. Then after bean counting the least amount they are willing to let go to the pot program, and authorize the funds for LARA to buy said new printer. Order is made, Order is not shipped until payment is received in full. this takes another 3 to 4 weeks or more until payment is received, then printer is shipped (or ordered from the factory if not in stock). Once order is filled, Back to LARA to have the State Techs install, setup, and program printer. Finally, after 6 to 9 months, the new printer is in place and starting to catch up on a nearly 7 month long backlog of cards for participants of the program....
Now, of course some of this is general assumption of how the scenario played out, but we can not neglect the hard fact, this printer issue took nearly 9 months to get resolved... When, if it was handled completely by the MDCH as the Act states, we could also then further guesstimate the cost savings to the program, And more importantly to the Taxpayers of the State, who were not supposed to have to pay for ANY cost of running this program, as the program is self funded by the Registry Card Fees... impo, this move by Snyder, only made matter much worse for the State, the Taxpayers, and more importantly, the Patients and Caregivers of those Patients.
Now a bit deeper look to the financial side of this game.
Note: Any office that is NOT the MMMP, is funded by the Taxpayers of Michigan, NOT the Registrants of the MMMP. And while the cost for the printer came from the money collected by the registry, the cost of everything that needed to happen in the state in regard to buying and installing this printer was the financial responsibility of the State, not the MMM registry program, now that they do not have sole authority to run the program.
So what "Other" offices would of been effected by the printer issue in the MMMP...
LARA, General State Accounting Offices, General Fund employee salaries, Appropriation Committee salaries, Representatives on the committee ect... as well as any other offices required to procure the solution, the office that is to implement the solution, not to mention the Legislative hearings to approve the funds as any money to be spent from the General Fund must be done so by the Appropriations Committee.
Every one of these offices are funded by the general Taxpayer. That means the Taxpayer of Michigan is partially paying for the funding and running of the State MMMP Program. All because Rick Snyder, made the illegal move of the MMMP from MDCH, to LARA, and took the funds to the general fund of the State. This makes the tax payer liable for cost of running certain aspects of the MMMP which was NOT how the Act was supposed to function on the funding and running of the program.
The Program was to be self funded, and held accountable for the entire program, and that has not been possible since Feb or March 2010, when the illegal move was made.
As far as other "ISSUES" that result from the moving of the Authority to run, and the Money to the General Fund, They are many.
Interestingly, we only need to look back to one yr ago, to see exactly how a simple issue as a printer problem, can cause Major malfunctions in the operation of the program, when it was removed from MDCH, and split up to multiple offices of the State...
So in summation, the illegal move of the MMM Program, has certainly cost the Registry Office additional money, time, hassle, as well as card delays to Authorized Patients and Caregivers, ect, but has also now cost the State and the Taxpayers an untold sum of monies, just to see that the MMM Program gets the equipment and/or personal that is needed to operate effeciently.
When had the change not happened, the issue would of almost certainly been a small bump in the road lasting up to a month or perhaps a bit longer, opposed to the 7 plus month train wreck it was. And we can be assured the total cost would of been absorbed by the MMMP Registry, and Zero Cost would of been deferred to the Taxpayers.