Developmental disabilities community frets as budget decisions loom

After weeks of calling lawmakers, rallying outside the State House, sending emails and making their case, thousands of Marylanders with developmental disabilities will soon find out if they’ll face budget cuts that they say could be devastating.

Gov. Wes Moore proposed $150 million worth of spending cuts in the Developmental Disabilities Administration, an attempt to rein in spending growth as the state faces a tough financial picture. The Democratic governor had to close a budget gap of about $1.4 billion, and the developmental disabilities cuts are one of the larger budget-balancing actions he proposed.

Lawmakers will take their first votes this week on whether to agree with those cuts or substitute their own spending decisions.

Sen. Guy Guzzone, chair of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, said negotiations will continue all the way up until Thursday afternoon, when his committee is scheduled to make its decision.

“Stay tuned,” Guzzone told reporters on Tuesday.

Advocates for groups that provide developmental disabilities programs expressed deep concerns that lawmakers won’t spare them from the proposed cuts.

“There is huge concern that the budget will be balanced on the backs of Marylanders with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” read a Tuesday statement from The Arc of Maryland and the Maryland Association of Community Services, which represents several organizations.

The groups said that it “appears there has been no movement of the dial” despite intense advocacy.

Guzzone offered few hints. He said that the cost-cutting would not be more than Moore’s $150 million proposal, but did not offer a specific number. He also said additional options for cuts are being discussed beyond those the governor proposed.

“There is no question that there has to be some sort of cost containment,” said Guzzone, a Howard County Democrat.

About 20,000 Marylanders with developmental disabilities receive services through Medicaid, ranging from personal care to job training and housing support. Maryland has a waiver from the federal government that allows flexibility and keeps more Marylanders living in the community rather than institutions.

Spending has increased significantly and has been difficult for the state to predict.

Moore proposed capping individual budgets at $500,000, tightening rules for when individuals can receive one-on-one support, and reducing pay of aides who are employed directly by individuals to put them in line with the pay of aides who work through agencies.

Individuals who receive DDA services — as well as their families and caregivers — have argued that these “cost containment” measures will have negative impacts on their lives, reducing their independence and making it harder to find staff.

The developmental disabilities community is pulling together a last-minute, in-person lobbying push on Thursday in hopes of swaying lawmakers to nix the cuts. They’ll be outfitted in red T-shirts, delivering letters to lawmakers’ offices that are cut up into pieces, symbolic of the budget cuts. They’ll also fill the State House observation galleries and hold a midday rally on Lawyers Mall.

Guzzone said the Senate and House of Delegates have been working closely on fine-tuning Moore’s $70.8 billion budget proposal, which he described as “pretty darn good.” After the budget moves through the Senate later this week and next, the House will take its votes.

The Developmental Disabilities Administration has been a key point of discussion, Guzzone said, with regular meetings that have also included Moore’s team and advocates.

“We want everybody to be in on the discussion,” he said. “At the end of the day, I’m sure people aren’t going to be completely happy, because that’s just the nature of it.”