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Posted on Sat, Nov. 07, 2009 10:15 PM
Fiscal neglect in Kansas
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Kansas’ fiscal neglect of its mentally retarded and developmentally disabled citizens is a disgrace. More than 4,000 families are waiting for services. Some have been on hold for more than four years.
Workers who help severely disabled Kansans live in the community receive a paltry average wage of $8.83 an hour.
Lawmakers of all political persuasions agree that the long waits and low wages are a problem. It’s a complicated situation, they say.
That’s only because the Legislature has allowed the problem to get out of hand. Lawmakers, along with then governor Kathleen Sebelius, made services for developmentally disabled Kansans a low priority.
Even with the state’s miserable budget picture, the remedy isn’t very complex. The Legislature’s own research has shown that a $70 million infusion over three years would greatly ease the strain on the home- and-community-based system.
The choice shouldn’t be between money for disabled citizens and money for public education, as some lawmakers frame the situation. Kansas has handed out hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks over the last 10 years.
In recent weeks, a commission has recommended phasing out two state hospitals that care for people with developmental disabilities. Members proposed first moving clients out of the Kansas Neurological Institute in Topeka, and then downsizing and eventually closing the Parsons State Hospital and Training Center in Parsons, Kan. Clients at the hospitals would move to smaller care facilities in their home communities.
Though financial considerations prompted the discussion, many advocates support the move to community-based settings.
But any decision to downsize the two hospitals must be accompanied by an inviolate commitment that freed up money would be used for services for the developmentally disabled.
But no single cost-saving measure will solve the problem the Legislature has brought upon itself and the state’s disabled citizens. Lawmakers this session must do the right thing and find substantial money to help this group.
Posted on Sat, Nov. 07, 2009 10:15 PM
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