The state of Kansas is facing a budget shortfall of at least $650 million. InterHab says budget cuts proposed by Gov. Laura Kelly include the removal of more than $22 million of state and federal funds for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
InterHab says this represents the single largest elimination of funds for the Kansas IDD community service network in its history, and that the governor’s announcement comes just days before the funds were to have been made available for services to Kansans with IDD. InterHab says service providers who are responsible for caring for persons with IDD were not given any advance warning that these funds were in jeopardy.
Matt Fletcher, Executive Director of InterHab, stated that, “We are greatly disappointed in the governor's decision to remove funding from Kansans with intellectual and developmental disabilities at a time when their caregivers are engaged in a critical fight to keep these vulnerable Kansans safe from the coronavirus pandemic. Kansans with IDD are much more vulnerable to serious complications from COVID-19 than the general public and IDD professionals have taken heroic measures to shield them. Now more than ever, our government should protect these vital services rather than raid needed funding from this struggling system to cover budget shortfalls."
InterHab says community-based providers of services to Kansans with intellectual and developmental disabilities are struggling to stay solvent because of the impacts of coronavirus pandemic, and that since March, IDD service-providers have suffered serious financial impacts; it says to date, no federal or state relief has been provided to IDD service-providers to help offset the impacts they’ve experienced because of COVID-19.
InterHab says the IDD community service network has been chronically underfunded for more than 20 years, with the network seeing only minor funding increases in the past few years. Fletcher added, “The $22 million appropriated by the 2020 Legislature was a lifeline to a provider network that is drowning. The removal of these funds will devastate service providers who already struggle to pay their staff as well as Kansans with IDD who depend on these services on a 24/7 basis.”