Testimony to

Senate Ways and Means Committee

Senator Steve Morris, Chair

January 23, 2002

Senate Bill 385

My name is Gina McDonald and I represent the Kansas Association of Centers for Independent Living (KACIL). KACIL represents 13 Centers for Independent Living (CIL’s). Centers provide services to people with disabilities of all ages. Centers for Independent Living also provide assistance to businesses and all other entities in the community to assist them in offering services to people with disabilities. We advocate at a state and national level for the rights of all people with disabilities to live in the communities of their choice.

SB 385 proposes to reduce the SRS and other budgets by 2% for fiscal year 2002. In effect you are requiring that they make that reduction in four months or less, considering this is the end of January and this bill is having it’s first hearing in it’s first House. That results in a reduction this year of 8%, or four times what it appears.

KACIL is well aware of the budget shortfalls and the terrible cuts that have been floating around since September. These cuts will not result in SRS making fewer trips to Hawaii. There are no more luxuries to cut. These reductions will result in elimination of vital services to people with disabilities and seniors.

We appreciate the difficult decisions you have to make over the next 3 months. I have heard this budget compared to a family budget. If a family does not have enough money, they cut out some things they were doing. I suggest to you that if a family were in this dire situation of deciding whether their kids would eat or get medication, if their aging parent was not going to get meals, or if their brother would not get oxygen or a wheelchair, I have no doubt that the family would look for a second job. They would figure out how to increase their income, not for trips to Disneyland, but for basic quality of life. That is exactly what we must do in Kansas.

We keep talking about a public policy regarding long-term care. We have yet to see a substantial policy statement or vision as to what the priorities

are going to be in a state that is aging. As medical advances continue, there will be more disabled individuals. No Doubt!

What we are really doing is tax shifting. The needs of the people will not go away. They will simply have to seek those services out from more costly local resources like emergency rooms and ambulances.

A number of years ago, this legislature asked the secretary of SRS to reduce the nursing facility (NF) budget. That was accomplished by creating HCBS waivers. If these cuts go into effect, we are likely to see an increase in the NF budget again.

As we heard the secretary of corrections speak yesterday, I was reminded of the fact that people who commit crimes are given public defenders to insure their right to be free is protected. If they are found guilty, they are sentenced to a term with an ending date.

That is not true for people with disabilities. They are told the only option is to lose their freedom if they want services and their "sentence" is indefinite. Their only crime is having a disability.

The answer cannot be to cut services because people need them to live. Including state hospitals, 90% of SRS's budget is direct service. KACIL opposes SB 385.

Thank you for your attention.

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