TOPEKA — Republican lawmakers vowed to be “fully committed” to helping Kansans with disabilities access state services this session, but despite funding for an opera house and a mission to the southwest border, they fell short of recommendations from disability rights groups.
The state budget bill that lawmakers finalized on April 5 sets aside $45.8 million, including $17.8 million from the state General Fund, available in fiscal year 2025 to fund services for 1,000 Kansans currently on the state’s waiting list, split between those with intellectual and physical disabilities. That’s double the amount proposed by the governor but still falls short of the funding recommended by advocacy groups.
Sen. Rob Olson (R-Olathe) said he was disappointed with the budget priorities, citing a $1 million budget earmarked for renovations to Manhattan’s Opera House as an example of where spending should be cut until wait times improve.
“These kids need money,” Olson said during the April 5 debate. “They need a right of way. They haven’t been in this building for a long time. We help take care of them, but we haven’t been able to take enough off the list. I would like to see a plan put in place to get this list to zero in the next three to four years. … We haven’t done much to get this list to zero, and we’re putting in so much effort to get this opera house done. It embarrasses me.”
The budget proposal also included $2 million for a “Compassionate Pregnancy Awareness” program to encourage women to give birth, and $15.7 million to fund the deployment of state resources to support border control efforts in Texas.
Waiting times for disability benefits have become one of the most debated issues this legislative session as numbers have reached crisis levels.
According to the most recent data, 7,661 people in Kansas are currently waiting for services, including 5,279 on the waiting list for intellectual and developmental disabilities and 2,382 on the waiting list for physical disabilities. The budget proposal would include a provision in law to limit the total number of people on the waiting list to more than 6,800.
Kansans in need can wait 10 years or more to receive essential services like in-home care, and in a previous series of articles, the Kansas Reflector has examined how these long wait times are negatively impacting thousands of Kansans with disabilities and their families.
If the same trends continue as last year, when 561 new people were added to the waiting list for people with intellectual disabilities, the proposed funding will not be enough to stop the list growing.
In September, House Speaker Dan Hawkins and Senate President Ty Masterson issued statements promising to address the wait list issue.
“Republicans are committed to eliminating Medicaid waiting lists to ensure that people who are truly in need can get the services they desperately need,” Hawkins and Masterson said in a statement.
During a pre-session press conference on their legislative plans, they reiterated the need to address the wait list issue.
“Right now we have 6,000 people on the waiting list and we need to address that before anything else happens,” Hawkins said. “These are people who have been on the list for years.”
“We want to make sure everyone has the ability to get off the list,” Masterson added.
The Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities, in collaboration with the Kansas Disability Rights Center, recommended reducing the waiting list by 20% in fiscal year 2025. To do so, lawmakers would need to allocate enough funding to take 1,100 people with intellectual and developmental disability waivers and 500 people with physical disability waivers off the waiting list.
“Waiting lists for the Intellectual/Developmental and Physical Disability Home-Based and Community-Based Services Medicaid Waiver Program have reached crisis point,” the council’s statement read. “Since CanCare began in 2013, waiting lists for the Intellectual/Developmental and Physical Disability Home-Based and Community-Based Services Medicaid Waiver Program have only gotten worse and are completely out of control in Kansas.”
Sen. Rick Billinger, Republican chairman of the Senate committee tasked with setting appropriations, agreed with Olson, but said there is a “limited amount of money available.”
Billinger said the council will likely consider addressing the list issue again next year.
“The waiting list should be at zero,” Billinger said. “It should be at zero. I guarantee you, we will do everything we can to take care of these kids. We have limited capacity available, but we have to try harder.”
The state’s funding plan will now head to the governor’s desk, where Gov. Laura Kelly will decide whether to approve or veto the state’s allocation of the $25 billion budget proposal.