By Dave Ranney, KHI News Service, May 15, 2008
TOPEKA, May 15 — Midway into this year’s legislative session, advocates for disabled Kansans and a pair of key legislators thought they were on track to eliminate the waiting lists for services. But the effort was derailed by a tightening budget and competing priorities.
Lawmakers passed a bill — House Substitute for Senate Bill 365 — to phase out all disability waiting lists by 2012. But, they didn’t approve the $15.1 million needed to fund the plan’s first year; instead, they added $5.6 million.
“It was driven by the shortfalls and the fact that this is an election year and nobody wanted to increase revenue,” said Rep. Bob Bethell, R-Alden. “That being the case, it all came down to where do we cut? And that’s what we did, we cut.”
Bethell said the requested $15.1 million “was not out of line, that’s about what we’ve spent in years past.”
Advocates for the developmentally disabled see the $5.6 million as a step backward.
“What passed was a third of what we’d asked for and with no commitment to the future. That, in our opinion, makes this session an abject failure,” said Tom Laing, executive director of Interhab, an association that represents community programs for the developmentally disabled.
The funding increase is expected to be enough to allow 25 people with developmental disabilities to move off of a waiting list for services. But Jane Rhys, executive director of the Kansas Council on Disability Services, said that’s little progress given that 762 eligible adults and 586 eligible children are now waiting for services.
“That’s a very long waiting list,” Rhys said. “Some of these people have been waiting a very long time.”
In addition to the individuals waiting for services, Rhys said another 1,281 adults and 879 children now in programs are waiting to receive additional services that they have requested.
The $5.6 million appropriated includes a 2 percent increase in the rates paid to community programs. Laing said the increase isn’t enough to help programs that are struggling to hold onto direct-care workers, most of whom earn less than $9 an hour.
Since 1995, Laing said, inflation has increased program costs by 48 percent but rates have risen by only 16 percent. Lack of funding makes it impossible for programs for the developmentally disabled to hire the workers needed to meet the demands for services and shrink the waiting list.
“It’s become a vicious cycle,” Laing said.
The situation may not be as dire for the physically disabled and those with traumatic brain injuries. Currently, neither group has a waiting list.
“We’re waiting to see the final numbers,” said Jennifer Schwartz, executive director at the Kansas Association of Centers for Independent Living. “There shouldn’t be a waiting list, but we’re not saying there won’t be; if we make it, we’ll just squeak by.”
Schwartz said the state’s independent living centers hope to fend off having to enact waiting lists until Jan. 1, after which, if needed, they can request a mid-year supplemental appropriation.
Whether such an appropriation would be approved is unclear.
“If it goes to a supplemental and if the governor proposes it, I’d say there’s a good chance of it passing,” Bethell said.
Bethell, the chairman of the House Social Services Budget Committee said he’s expecting a waiting list for the physically disabled on or before Jan. 1.
“I don’t see how we can maintain the non-existence of the PD waiting list,” he said. “I hope I’m wrong — maybe the programs can be creative enough to make in happen, but I don’t see how. It’s going to be tough.”
Bethell and Rep. Jerry Henry, D-Cummings, co-sponsored House Substitute for Senate Bill 365.
“We’re in crisis mode right now,” Henry said.
He, too, predicted a waiting list for the physically disabled.
“I think we’re going to see (Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services) come in with some substantial supplemental requests in January,” Henry said. “I think they’re going to be double or triple what they usually are.”
Lawmakers also:
“The committee is going to be critical,” Bethell said. “If we do it right, it can make things happen.”
“It’ll give us a starting point,” Henry said.
Dave Ranney is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at dranney@khi.org or at 785-233-5443, ext. 128.