Topeka ? An error made at the end of the 2003 legislative session has kept $6.5 million from being used to help reduce waiting lists that are full of Kansans needing social services, officials have confirmed.

“That is a big-ticket item,” said Bob Harder, an advocate for the elderly and people with disabilities who is also a former secretary of the state’s main social service agency.

Mistakes in legislation passed in a flurry at the end of a session are infrequent but not unusual. But one of this magnitude is, Harder said.

During the 2003 legislative session, state lawmakers and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius had agreed to apply an additional $2.6 million in state tax revenue to provide home health care services for people with developmental disabilities. That amount of money would have garnered an additional $3.9 million in federal funds for a total of $6.5 million.

But somehow the appropriation was designated for the past fiscal year, not the current one.

Because of the error, the funding had to “lapse,” meaning it was returned to the state’s general revenue fund.

The Big Tent Coalition, a group of social service advocates, has estimated that about 2,800 people, including more than 900 who are developmentally disabled, are on various waiting lists. An appropriation of $6.5 million would reduced the waiting list for the developmentally disabled by about 225 people, according to the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

Sebelius’ budget director Duane Goossen said the mistake escaped the eye of the various legislative departments that drew up and analyzed bills.

He said the funding would be included in Sebelius’ budget proposal in January, and he expected it would easily pass early in the session.

But state Rep. Kenny Wilk, R-Lansing, and former chairman of the House budget-writing committee, said with state funding so tight, passage of the funds could not be assumed.

“If that money lapsed, they (the Legislature) are going to be scraping for every dollar,” he said.

State budget experts recently announced that revenue was essentially flat for the next fiscal year, providing little room for spending increases.