Under pressure to carve $26.6 million from her $2.2 billion budget, Kansas Welfare Secretary Janet Schalansky said Wednesday that she would lay off as many as 43 central-office and 70 state hospital workers and cut funds that help communities care for the poor, disabled and mentally ill.

The news left butterflies in the stomachs of social service providers.

“It’s hard to know the full impact of what we’re looking at, but for a lot of people, these cuts will be devastating — the potential is certainly there,” said Bob Mikesic of Independence Inc., a Lawrence agency that helps the physically disabled stay in their homes.

Schalansky said the depth of the layoffs, which could begin as early as Jan. 15, would be dictated by the number of people who resign or retire.

Reductions also include cuts in:

• Aid to community mental health programs, including Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center in Lawrence.
• Payments to hospitals and pharmacies.


Vicky Tuttle fastens a head brace onto her brother, Jack, who is no longer able to hold his head up. The Tuttle family, from Eudora, has battled muscular dystrophy with the assistance of a Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services program, which may be cut. Vicky, whose sister, Marilyn, also has the disease, receives per hour from SRS to care for her brother. On Wednesday, the Tuttles did their evening routine before preparing for bed.

• Day-care subsidies for as many as 1,300 working, low-income families.
• Payments to contractors overseeing the state’s family preservation, foster care and adoption services.
• Aid for adults with disabilities who, without help, could be forced to move into nursing homes.
• In-home services to 350 adults with disabilities will be eliminated, and 118 people now on a waiting list for services will be told they’re no longer eligible.

‘Distasteful’

Mitch Drucker of Assist LLC thumbs through the list of budget cuts for SRS during a conference call to SRS offices statewide, including the one in Lawrence. State budget woes forced Gov. Bill Graves to cut funding for SRS; details of program cuts were announced Wednesday.

“These are extreme, distasteful budget cuts that we have to make, and probably the hardest I’ve ever seen made in SRS,” Schalansky said.

In addition to cuts, eligibility requirements will be tightened, making it more difficult for people with disabilities to qualify for help. And fees for some services will be increased.

Families participating in HealthWave, the state’s health insurance program for low-income children, will see their premiums triple, from $10 or $15 a month to $30 to $45 a month.

Vision and hearing examinations will be eliminated, as will incontinence supplies for the poor.

The cuts — 95 in all — were necessitated by Gov. Bill Graves’ move to head off a projected $312 million deficit in the state’s current budget year, which ends June 30.

But disappointing revenue collections are fueling fears the deficit could be even larger.

Numbers released Wednesday showed the state collected $23 million less than anticipated last month — though officials already had significantly lowered their expectations.

To meet the expected deficit, Graves last week ordered most state agencies to reduce by 3.9 percent their draws on the state general fund. Public schools, courts and the Legislature dodged the cut.

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Because most SRS programs match their state dollars with federal funds, the latest cut is expected to reduce SRS spending by $49 million.

The depth and breadth of the cuts took many advocates and program directors by surprise.

“This is a very dramatic cut for us — it looks like we be getting $300,000 less that what we’d budgeted,” said Sharon Spratt, executive director at Cottonwood Inc., a Lawrence agency that helps the developmentally disabled.

“We can’t absorb that,” Spratt said. “We may be looking at some layoffs, too.”

Who gets hurt

Through an SRS program, Vicky Tuttle of Eudora is paid $9 an hour to care for her 49-year-old brother, Jack, whose muscular dystrophy left him unable to walk, feed himself or use the bathroom without assistance.

While at home, Tuttle also cares for her 34-year-old sister, Marilyn, who, like her brother, is battling muscular dystrophy.

“I work 24-7,” Tuttle said. “Neither my brother nor my sister can take care of themselves.”

Now, Tuttle could be told to take a pay cut.

“We’re barely making it now,” she said. “If they do that, I’d go out and get a job — something that pays more than $9 an hour. But I don’t know what we’d do with my brother. He could move to a nursing home, but that would mean he’d lose all the dignity he has left. I wouldn’t want to see that.”

Foster care, too

Spending on foster care will be cut 5 percent. Adoption and family preservation services are cut 2.5 percent.

“That’s about an $80,000 cut for us,” said Bruce Beale, executive director at DCCCA, a Lawrence-based agency that has the state contract for providing family preservation services in 53 counties in the eastern half of Kansas.

A year ago, SRS cut its family-preservation spending by 30 percent, going from about $15 million to $10 million.

Lawmakers this year restored $2.7 million. But in August, SRS cut the increase by $1 million; on Wednesday, it wiped out the remaining $1.7 million and cut another 5 percent.

“It’s a sad state of affairs,” Beale said. “It’s frustrating, but we all know the state is broke.”

Beale said he would ask to renegotiate DCCCA’s contract with SRS.

“The way it reads now, we have to be able to respond to a crisis within 60 minutes,” he said. “Maybe I can get that changed to 90 minutes — I say that, but my social workers tell me it’s not a good idea. It’s not safe.”