Topeka ? As lawmakers start state budget negotiations, several hundred Kansans with disabilities rallied Thursday at the Capitol for expanded services.

Tiffany Berry, who receives services from Independence Inc. in Lawrence, was working at an information table in the rotunda. She attends Johnson County Community College and wants to enter the medical profession.

“If it wasn’t for them (Independence Inc.), I wouldn’t go to school and have the aspirations I do now,” Berry said.

Advocates are seeking a $5.9 million increase in programs that provide home- and community-based services, and full implementation of a $37.5 million “Money Follows the Person” grant. This grant gives people in nursing homes a chance to return home or to their communities to receive services.

Appropriations for home- and community-based services are tied up in various bills that will probably be hammered out later in the legislative session.

Shannon Jones, executive director of the Statewide Independent Living Council of Kansas, said getting services to people that allow them to leave nursing homes and return to their homes or communities is better for the individual and less expensive to the state.

“This is truly a win-win strategy,” Jones said.