News - Local/State - Andrew Dys

Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008

Budget cuts leave local special needs groups hungry for services

Politicians talk about budget cuts like recipes. Just cut something out, they scream. Then the politicians go eat.

It's fine when the recipe cut means no travel for bureaucrats or less waste. But more than 1,500 disabled people in York, Chester and Lancaster counties depend on the government because they cannot today, or ever, take care of themselves. None are butter to trim from pie crust.

And they eat only when we help feed them.

In cuts approved by the Legislature and governor in recent days, the state disabilities department had almost $22 million slashed -- more than 11 percent of the money it has to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves.

"Unfortunately, there will be an impact to services," said Lois Park Mole, director of government and community affairs for the state Department of Disabilities and Special Needs. "It is going to have an impact on clients and employees."

That impact is real and harsh. Those cuts are being dealt with right now by the executives and staff for the local disability boards that run group homes, residential centers, vocational programs and more. Heads that already rolled include vocational programs that have been told when clients leave, the slot will be lost. Child development centers, five around the state, will close after December. Summer services next year will be halved. Early intervention programs for disabled children younger than 6 will be reduced.

'We have been preparing for this'

But there is good news. Disability services for clients in area counties have not been cut. Staff in all three counties have been able to keep programs open. No disabled person currently getting service will lose it.

"Unlike some who said they didn't see this coming, we have been preparing for this," said Mary Poole, executive director for the York County Board of Disabilities and Special Needs.

Gary Lemel, a York County board member and immediate past board president, put it this way: "Nobody who is a client will get kicked out."

Lemel talked straight because this is crunch time for those disabled among us who are the most vulnerable. Waiting lists for services will certainly grow. Locally, capital projects, including an eight-bed residential center and plans to buy more buildings for a burgeoning group home need, are on hold, Lemel said.

"Expansion of services is shut down," he said.

The problem with cutting 11 percent of the money for disabled people is the clients rarely -- if ever -- need fewer services as they get older. Unlike employment services that can train people for jobs then discharge them from rolls and back into the work force, or social services that assist families until the crisis passes, most disabilities clients have "lifelong disabilities," Poole said.

"And in York County, with our growing population, our number of clients grows all the time," Poole said.

Yet, right now, there will be no more growing services to help them.

More than 350 people work full time or part time for the York board or its contractors. Why so many? Because the clients need, in many cases, individual or around-the-clock care.

Chester and Lancaster counties have a combined disabilities board that's already considering cutting staff holidays to maintain current service levels, said Jay Altman, executive director of the Chester/Lancaster disabilities board.

"We haven't had to cut services, but it is too early to say if (future) programs are going to get cut," Altman said.

The main priority remains serving clients with the greatest needs, Park Mole said.

County boards have until early December to submit plans for next year to figure out how to cut $316,000 from York County's budget for the disabled, and cut $226,000 from Chester and Lancaster counties.

Park Mole described what the disability boards do as "a statutory and moral obligation."

That means under the laws of this state, people with physical and mental disabilities must be taken care of by the rest of us.

But the lawmakers who cut this budget for people with disabilities sure didn't cut the responsibility of these boards. They just cut the meat out of the recipe. And those boards still must legally make sure that the disabled have at least basic dignity and services. Whether the people who control the laws of human kindness -- us -- allow anything else to be cut from those without a voice to complain remains to be seen.