May
6, 2003
It
appears that we are coming to the end of the 2003 Legislative Session, for good
or bad. We are very happy and somewhat surprised to tell you that the Conference
committees just agreed to the following additions to the budget:
$2.2 million for Developmental Disabilities Waivers, family supports, etc.,
$2.1 million for the Physical Disabilities Waiver waiting list.
$2.7 million for the Frail Elderly Waiting list.
The Conference committee report must still be passed by the Senate and House.
More to come if that does not occur.
This is nowhere near the $94 million it would take to completely fund services
for people with disabilities and Seniors. We will continue to work and
hope you'll work with us on reaching that goal.
However, in a year when we were concerned about losing services, we managed to
restore many of the allotments and have an additional $7 million dollars for
Community Based Services. We also got the "Dollar Follows the
Individual" language passed. This is a huge victory! This means that
for people who are currently in Nursing facilities who wish to leave and return
to the community, they will no longer have to stay on the waiting list. The
dollars being paid for them by the state will "follow them" from the
Institution to the community for community based services.
Congratulations to Shannon Jones and Bob Harder of the Big Tent for their
Leadership, which has only just begun!
Thanks to ADAPT and the Tent City folks for their endurance in living on
STATEHOUSE grounds to keep disability issues in the mind of legislators.
Thanks to the Freshman legislators who showed real leadership in developing a
tax package that had real solutions to the huge gap in resources. Your
time will come!
We also thank all the legislators and the Governor who did see the need to add
dollars to the budget, even though it is only a small step toward real health
care for all.
Thanks to Josie Torrez for her work for KACIL to keep us updated and for her
advocacy at the Legislature.
Most importantly, thanks to all of you for your phone calls, letters, e-mails,
and trips to Topeka to testify, visit with legislators and rally with us.
Gina
The figures I gave you for the increases to the waivers are all State General
Funds. That means money that will be matched with federal funds. So each would
be a little more than twice as much money. For the PD Waiver, for
example, there is already about $400.000 in the budget. With the new 2.1
million and federal match, we should have an increase of about $5 million for
PD Waiver. Pretty good news!
Thanks to Josie for the update.
"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence
of our friends." - Martin Luther King Jr