Senior citizens will need to get loud during the next legislative session if they want their proposals to get funded, area lawmakers said during a forum on elderly issues Wednesday.

That’s because the next legislative session is expected to produce a deafening roar from those seeking new funding for K-12 education.

“I know there are a lot of people concerned about how we are going to get the money for our good programs when all the money is going to education,” Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, told about 50 people attending a forum at the Lawrence Public Library sponsored by the Interagency Network for Aging. “I think we’re definitely paying the price for neglecting education for a number of years. I hope we don’t get a large bill that soaks up every penny in the state treasury, but it very well may.”

Gayle Sigurdson, service coordinator at Babcock Place and a member of the network, said senior service advocates were trying to convince legislators that some proposed programs could result in cost savings.

“Senior citizens don’t want to compete with education,” Sigurdson said.

Advocates particularly lobbied lawmakers Wednesday on a proposal that would add a provision to Medicaid that would make it easier for senior citizens to receive care in their homes rather than entering a nursing home. The state currently has the Home and Community Based Services program, but it is not part of the Medicaid program. By not making it part of Medicaid the state is allowed to cap the number of people who can enter the program each year.

Legislators said helping seniors stay at home made good sense from a health perspective, but an expansion of the program would require more funding.

“I do have some real concerns about this whole area of Medicaid,” said Sen. Roger Pine, R-Lawrence. “It is the fastest growing expense we have in the state.”

Other legislators – including Rep. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin, Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence and Rep. Ann Mah, D-Topeka – said they also were supportive of the proposal but stopped short of saying they would be able to fund it.

But Sigurdson said the program was an example of how the state could save money. She said if the program were more widely available, fewer people may enter nursing homes through the Medicaid program. She said studies estimate that it costs roughly three times more to care for an individual in a nursing home than to care for them in their own homes.