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Funding cuts hurt disabled adults

We commend Bridget Hall Grumet for the story on how Barb Konrad's e-mails to the governor saved PACK's camp for developmentally disabled children from the state budgetary ax. It was a heartwarming story with a happy ending and a testament to Konrad's persistence.

There is no such happy ending, however, for the budget cuts that threaten services and put lives at risk among Florida's adult developmentally disabled population. At the not-for-profit Center for Independence Inc., we know these heart-rending cases well, for we have spent the last 40 years advocating for Pasco's County's developmentally disabled adults.

Imagine that you are a private corporation doing business with the state of Florida. You have a contract with the state that stipulates that you make available to the state a certain product and that you be reimbursed by the state for a set amount per unit of product. Now imagine that any time during the contract year, the state of Florida can substantially reduce the per unit reimbursement rate but still require you to produce the same number of units of product.

What would this do to your ability to plan? What would this do to your ability to budget for the fiscal year? An even more basic question: Why would you even want to do business with such an unfaithful and unreliable partner?

This is precisely the situation currently facing those of us who serve the needs of the developmentally disabled in Florida. The reimbursement rates negotiated with the state and codified in contracts were unilaterally slashed by the state in the middle of the contract year. The rationale given by the Department of Children and Families is that there was a deficit in the budget.

There never was a deficit. The department created the illusion of a deficit with a $30-million so-called set-aside. By removing $30-million in revenue at the stroke of an accountant's pen, the department changed a surplus into an apparent deficit.

And lest your readers think this is just the opinion of a disgruntled service provider, we quote the official report of the inspector general: "The department set aside $30-million in available funds and did not use them in the deficit projection that subsequently led to the Nov. 1 rate adjustment. A question still remains regarding the rationale used in that decision."

For more than a year now, we service providers have pressured the department to provide any evidence of an actual deficit that would have justified a rate reduction, and to date, the state has failed to produce that evidence. Moreover, the state refuses to release actual budget numbers notwithstanding the fact that such a failure constitutes noncompliance with the state's own sunshine laws.

One particularly egregious tactic employed by the state is to arbitrarily reduce the approved staff-to-consumer ratio, effectively reducing the rates for services. Predictably, the results have been tragic: consumers with feeding tubes suffocating to death and others being sexually exploited immediately after such staffing reductions.

The governor's statement - that funding for the developmentally disabled has increased 140 percent in several years - is technically true but deliberately misleading. Although the number of absolute dollars has increased, the rate is so low that Center for Independence loses money on each client served. In order to access this supposed increase in funding, we have to serve more consumers at an even greater loss. How long can even a not-for-profit entity assume the financial losses that have decimated service providers such as the center?

Our state association of service providers - on behalf of Florida's mentally retarded adults - has initiated a lawsuit against the state, seeking to have the rates returned to their contracted level. The state, knowing it cannot prevail on the merits of the case, has consistently sought to postpone proceedings.

In our opinion, everyone associated with the state of Florida should be absolutely humiliated by the fact that as vulnerable and underserved a portion of the population as Florida's developmentally disabled is, it is reduced to filing a lawsuit to receive from the state the services to which it is legally entitled.

Again, we are very pleased that Mrs. Konrad's son will get to go to summer camp. Meanwhile, developmentally disabled adults endure much greater cuts that put them at risk of death and exploitation because of the unconscionable policies of our state government.

Land O'Lakes rich with history

Dennis Smith spares few insults in talking about Land O'Lakes. He is on record as saying that Land O'Lakes is the dumpiest part of the county. He speaks of Land O'Lakes and U.S. 41 with terms such as "deterioration" and "degenerate" and "an eyesore." This is no way to settle disputes as to what to call the territory alongside Interstate 75. While U.S. 41 is not high on anyone's list of scenic highways, it's important to note that the road has been around for a lot longer than the Suncoast Expressway and many other roads in the county. Pioneer Florida families traveled that road when there was nothing but turpentine makers and sawmills.

If it looks unsightly to the newly transplanted Smith, imagine what the ghosts of pioneers past must think of the beautiful pastureland and cypress forests that were plowed over for interstates, shopping centers and the development that Mr. Smith lives in. Sure, the new roads have brand new box stores and national chains, but old 41 still carries the character of a community that blazed the trail for generations to follow. In just a few years, it went from a two-lane road to a multilane major artery. Some businesses and homes were displaced, but the community has endured. And if it can sustain the ongoing changes, it will surely sustain the snobbish view that its work in progress makes it a dump.

Although some areas of Pasco are less picturesque than others, the county is a wonderful place as a whole. If you want to see real dumps, take I-75 north and keep driving. Pasco is a diamond in the rough. We even have the unique situation of having county government centers on both ends of the county, which one could argue makes the central part purer in some respects.

I have a AAA map from a couple of years ago which shows Land O'Lakes covering the area of U.S. 41 east to the interstate. The development known as Meadow Pointe and the property west beyond the interstate was known originally by a different name. Perhaps this original name should be what we settle on for on the area in dispute: Cabbage Swamp. Now there's a compromise even the skeeters will love!

[Last modified June 9, 2005, 01:17:24]