Rethink cuts to DDA

Carroll County Times Editorial
8/30/2009

Few would argue that balancing the state budget is a painful necessity, but balancing the budget on the backs of those who are least able to help themselves, even as other programs and departments face smaller cuts, is wrong.

Among the $454 million in state budget cuts approved last week by Gov. Martin O’Malley and the state Board of Public Works were reductions in aid to the developmentally disabled.

The 2 percent cut in funding for community services providers, who serve the developmentally disabled as well as Medicaid patients, may seem small. Indeed, the money saved amounts to about $21.7 million.

But for the Developmental Disabilities Administration, the cuts are huge. About 22,000 people now receive community services from the DDA, but there are about 19,000 other people on a waiting list.

DDA officials say their clients, people with down syndrome, cerebral palsy or other disabilities depend on the community services, and the thousands on the waiting list struggle to get by.

Cutting budgets in areas where others can make up the difference, or where the current funding surpasses the need, are essential things that we need to do to get expenses in the state under control. But cutting money from programs that already are underfunded, where waiting lists exist and where those being helped have few alternatives is something the state should avoid at all costs.

Stephen Morgan, executive director of the Arc of Baltimore, told the Associated Press last week. “That’s a very fragile system, because it’s been underfunded for years and this just is making a critical situation even worse.”

DDA representatives, clients and advocates held a rally in Annapolis prior to the announced budget cuts, pleading with the administration to find money elsewhere. The cries for help, apparently, fell on deaf ears.

A primary task of government is to help those who need it most. Getting a hand up from the government has helped DDA clients get training and jobs, move into residential housing and enjoy other aspects of life that many of us take for granted. Every day they serve as a positive inspiration of what we can accomplish, and show that overcoming challenges is something within everyone’s reach.

State leaders should go back to the books and look for other places to make up the $21.7 million. Many programs provide far less return, far less bang for the buck, yet have suffered far less from the budget cut axe.

Don’t take money from already underfunded programs that, every day, are seeing successes in helping people to help make better lives for themselves.

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