Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Economy shreds hopes of disabled

By Ed Sealover, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 27, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

Text size  
Dimitri Lucas looks at family pictures with his parents Irene Lucas and Louis Lucas at their Colorado Springs home. Lucas is a 28-year-old autistic man who after 2 1/2 years of looking for a job found one with Ingenix, a firm that processes insurance claims.

Photo by Krik Speer / The Gazette

Dimitri Lucas looks at family pictures with his parents Irene Lucas and Louis Lucas at their Colorado Springs home. Lucas is a 28-year-old autistic man who after 2 1/2 years of looking for a job found one with Ingenix, a firm that processes insurance claims.

More Colorado Government

More stories »

The flush of optimism the developmentally disabled community felt last summer with the signing of legislation to give them long-awaited relief and opportunities is fading fast.

The 10 bills Gov. Bill Ritter signed June 5 were meant to provide jobs for the disabled, increase oversight of care and reduce by as many as 700 the number of people on a years-long waiting list for service.

The waiting list is being pared slowly, but the econmy's collapse is wiping out nearly all of the other gains.

None of the job programs is under way, an online registry of abusive or neglectful caregivers isn't close to being ready and legislation seen as providing the next big steps forward for the disabled won't be introduced.

Lagging tax revenues are forcing almost every aspect of state government to scale back. But advocates for the developmentally disabled say they fear for that community if hard-earned gains are rolled back.

"These are people who are very vulnerable. . . . They're not able to take care of themselves," said Roger Jensen, CEO of Starpoint, a nonprofit working with the disabled in Fremont, Custer and Chaffee counties. "We fought too hard to get these new (opportunities), and to see them go down the drain because of a budget-cutting process is unconscionable to us."

Roughly 12,000 developmentally disabled Coloradans remain on waiting lists to get state services, and about 4,200 of them need intensive or round-the- clock care. The average wait is eight years, and some individuals can't get help until their parent or caregiver dies, said Jeremy Schupbach, legislative liaison for Alliance, an advocacy group for the disabled.

A special legislative committee met in 2007 to find solutions and came up with a slew of bills, all of which passed in 2008 with bipartisan support.

Enactment of many of the bills is on hold, however.

Two Colorado Springs Republicans, Reps. Bob Gardner and Larry Liston, successfully sponsored a pair of measures giving tax credits to businesses that hired the developmentally disabled and setting aside some state contracts for nonprofits that have a work force the majority of whom are disabled. But the tax credits won't be offered because the state doesn't have enough money, and jobs to be set aside for the disabled aren't being filled because of a hiring freeze, Schupbach said.

Getting a list of abusive caregivers online requires raising $33,000 from private sources, and that has not happened, Schupbach noted.

Rep. Karen Middleton, D-Aurora, was supposed to sponsor a bill allowing parents to set aside money for disabled children and have it partially matched by the state, but she announced after this month's grim economic forecast that the idea is off the table.

Meanwhile, three regional centers that house and treat severely developmentally disabled adults have not been able to accept new clients for months because they can't expand staffs, said Marijo Rymer, executive director of The Arc of Colorado. If people can't get in the centers, they tend to end up in jail, in hospitals or homeless, she said.

Ritter announced this week that department heads should prepare to cut as much as 10 percent of their budgets next year - a move that could take some $40 million from the Division for Developmental Disabilities, Jensen said.

Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer said the governor does not want to unduly harm areas like developmental disability services that he has helped build up the past two years. Ritter will be looking to minimize potential damage in whatever cuts he recommends, Dreyer said.

Comments

  • December 27, 2008

    1:52 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    deb writes:

    This is disparaging and beyond disappointing. I think Governor Ritter could have prevented this. After Amendment 51 and the Interim Committee that led to the bills and all the publications about the Waiting List....this is unconscienable and a disgrace. I believe he will regret this when his term is up for re-election. That's all I can say in defense of my son who leaves federally mandated services through the school district in May 2009....to WHAT? Nothing, that's what! I guess he'll sit at home in his wheelchair wasting away since there are going to be no developmental disability supports and since the Division for Vocational Rehab has a freeze because of funding cuts. Where are we supposed to go for help Governor Ritter? Where?

  • December 28, 2008

    1:04 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    SL10 writes:

    Well, the people of Colorado said eff the disabled when they voted down an amendment that would have help put developmental disabled people onto a fast track to a semi normal life.

  • December 29, 2008

    1 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    NotSoros writes:

    How about State tax credits for contributions to all State registered charities. There is a concept.

    The last people I would trust to make a decision as to where hard earned $$$ should go are state (or federal) employees.