News for the Disabled

Florida’s Disabled Residents Appeal Budget Cutbacks

Posted on Dec 31, 2008

There has been much discussion and speculation over the drastic budget cuts in Florida. Those that will be most affected by the cutbacks will be the state's developmentally disabled community.

With only one round of budget cutbacks complete and others on the way, group homes around the state have closed or narrowly missed closure. So far some groups, such as Mentor, an organization that runs group homes, have managed to stay open with their full services. However, some have not been as lucky

Sunrise Community in Collier County has closed its group home and nearly lost an adult day program in Naples. Donors were able to save the group home for one year but with tough financial times and the state's budget cutbacks the future of the home is uncertain.

"If they drive individual agencies and providers like Sunrise out, this is not an industry you pick up and start again," stated Paul Starzty, Sunrise executive director. "Once people start leaving, there are going to be many, many individuals who end up without services."

St. James Place is a group home in Cape Coral that is facing the same troubles. It is looking at reorganizing and possibly turning over its operations to another group.

The struggles are due in part to the new caps put on the different levels or tiers that the disabled are assigned to. The four-tier system is laid out in the following way:

Tier 1: No spending limits. This will change to 5% over their actual spending last year.
Tier 2: $55,000
Tier 3: $35,000
Tier 4: $14,792

The tiers, which took effect October 15^th, affected approximately 7,500 people. Of these, 5,400 appealed. The state's lawyers will only allow 700 of the appeals to go through to the Division of Administrative Hearings. The rest of appeals can be filed again. No matter what the outcome of their initial appeal, everyone should have an answer by the end of December.

For some, the wait has been excruciating and the decisions under the new system have proven impossible to make.

Beth Cameron filed an appeal on behalf of her brother, Ian Bashaw. He was placed in Tier 2 which has forced Cameron to make some tough choices. She has had to choose between sending him to a day program at LARC in Fort Meyers or continuing with behavioral therapy. Both are too important to give up yet if her appeal is not approved she must make a choice.

"People are just waiting and hoping," Cameron said.