Georgia ADAP spared from budget cuts

Although Georgia's AIDS Drug Assistance Program was scheduled to receive a $1.5 million cut in state funding in fiscal 2004, the state Board of Human Resources opted to let funding remain unchanged at a meeting on the topic last week, the Southern Voice reports. The board approved a revised budget that maintains funding for key care programs, including Georgia's ADAP. AIDS activists say that had the funding cut been approved, nearly 1,000 ADAP enrollees would be forced out of the program over the next two years. Jeff Graham, executive director of the Atlanta-based AIDS Survival Project, praised the board for not cutting ADAP spending and said the decision to maintain funding could be credited to work by ADAP staff, veteran board members, and HIV-positive people, all of whom lobbied against the planned cut.