State balancing budget on backs of those unable to help themselves

South Carolina lawmakers need to cut $560 million to balance the books in a state where new taxes are not popular. Their solution is to cut state services for all people with disabilities except the 4,000 living in state care.

The most severely disabled who are institutionalized are not being cut; however, many people with disabilities who only survive in private care will be abandoned. 

Parents and caregivers of the 26,000 say without the state supports for day care they will have to quit their jobs and stay home. The alternative is to put the person with disability in state-paid institutions except there are no openings.

This reverses a long trend to keep people out of institutions where the cost to the state is much higher than sponsoring care with family and relatives. Studies have demonstrated that institutional care costs between 7 to 20 times more than home-care supports.

“Andrew J. Imparato, chief executive of the American Association of People with Disabilities, said he is hearing horror stories about budget cuts around the country, but South Carolina is the most extreme example. Shutting down everything but federally required residential care is “the most draconian kind of thing I’ve heard,” he said.”

Lawmakers say they have little choice. They are trying to close a shortfall in next year’s budget in a heavily Republican state where tax increases are not considered a viable option.

Mary Bennett, a single mother of three, said the budget cuts would mean sending her 11-year-old autistic son to an institution or giving up her job at a Columbia program that helps parents like her. Her son goes to public school a few days a week and a state-funded program cares for him the other days.

“He’s completely dependent on other people. He can’t do anything himself,” said Bennett, 47. “I wouldn’t be able to work if they cut his services.” Washington Examiner

Some believe the families of people with disabilities should bear the cost of looking after them. This is impossible in many cases. If parents and family members work they need someone to look after the disabled when they are absent. If they don’t work they can’t look after anyone financially.

The cost of extra supports for those living with disabilities can easily be beyond the incomes of average Americans.

Parents and advocates are demonstrating at the state legislature, writing letters to their representatives and lobbying for supports. The recession is creating many victims and those living with disabilities are caught in the net.

For more on this story, see the Washington Examiner. Video courtesy of WBCD Charleston South Carolina.