In the last legislative session, the Legislature and Governor approved a budget that will allow for approximately $15 million to fund the waiting list for the next two years. $5,197,920 will be allocated for Fiscal Year 2009-2010 and $10,525,788 for Fiscal Year 2010-2011. The $15 million will be state funds. These funds will be matched by federal funds for a total of $30 million in the next two years to fund community-based services for people with developmental disabilities. The funds will be used to remove people from the waiting list in two ways:
· 2/3 of the funds will be used for people on the list who have been waiting the longest.
· 1/3 of the funds will be used for people who are willing to use supported services. Supported services are designed to allow people to be supported by staff as they need the support, but not necessarily 24 hours/day, 7 days/week if that is not what they need.
What this means is that for the next two years, this funding will allow the list to stay at the same number. In other words, the list will not grow, but it will still be there. Right now there are over 2,000 Nebraskans with developmental disabilities on the waiting list. This funding would keep that number at about 2,000. If the funding wasn’t there, the number of people waiting for community-based services would rise to about 2,300 or so.
Before the start of the Special Session in November, the Governor made a point to keep funding in the budget for the waiting list. The Arc of Nebraska along with several other organizations wrote a letter to Nebraska Senators urging them to do the same. The Arc also disseminated a sample letter and talking points to local chapters to disseminate to their membership.
It is vital that the waiting list is funded. It is long overdue and The Arc will continue to urge its elimination entirely.
During this legislative session, The Arc of Nebraska will again be closely tracking and participating in any discussion about the waiting list.
Contact us to find out how you can take action!