Despite growing needs among people with developmental disabilities, the Shumlin administration is standing firm in its decision to tamp down spending on services.
The 16 agencies that receive state dollars to provide programs for developmentally disabled Vermonters had until Friday to submit plans outlining how they will collectively cut $2.23 million from their budgets during the current fiscal year.
During the past legislative session, advocates fought tooth and nail against the administration’s request to trim this money from the Developmental Services division of the Department of Aging and Independent Living (DAIL).
Advocates say the program hasn’t recovered from a series of cuts that date back to 2009, and the number of people and the level of support they require has continued to grow.
“While it is true that the developmental services budget has increased, it’s important to know that the number of individuals needing new services increases each year, and that people are living longer as part of their communities,” Karen Schwartz, director of the Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council, said in a statement.
Administration officials point out that the program budget has increased at a rate of 4 percent to 6 percent annually for the past several years, and they say it’s fiscally irresponsible to pony up more money.
“The economy is not growing proportionally,” DAIL Commissioner Susan Wehry said. “From our perspective, we have actually done a pretty good job of protecting a big portion of that budget.”
The Legislature created a summer study committee, hoping that the parties could reach consensus on a way to cut costs without cutting services. The committee came up empty-handed, and Wehry made it clear that her fallback option was a rescission in the neighborhood of $2.5 million.
The department sent out notices Oct. 31 to the 16 agencies that provide services, assigning each a dollar amount they would have to carve off their budgets.
There are roughly 3,000 Vermonters who receive services from these agencies. Wehry says she thinks most of the cuts can be made by reducing administrative expenses.
“If history is any guide, we anticipate the majority of reductions will be on the administrative side of things,” Wehry said. “The impact to service plans, historically, has been minimal.”
Schwartz and other advocates have said that’s unrealistic and some services will have to be scaled back.
Wehry told lawmakers last session that the department can point to a few trends but they don’t have a catch-all theory to explain the increased demand. DAIL Deputy Commissioner Camille George has cited several contributing factors: an increase in refugee caseload, an increase in clients with autism, and increases in the number of aging parents caring for disabled clients and the number of aging clients themselves.
