Chairman’s Message:
How is the O'Malley Administration Failing Maryland's Disabled?
The O'Malley Administration provides a painful reminder that putting money in government budgets and then providing services are not the same when programs do not perform. Kudos to the Maryland Reporter and journalists Len Lazarick and Glynis Kazanjian for their continuing coverage of the serious O'Malley Administration's failures at Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA.) In November the Maryland Reporter covered the $38 million in DDA funds that went unspent in fiscal years 2010 and 2011. Bookkeeping maneuvers inappropriately assigned unspent funds to previous fiscal years, rather than using them to restore budget cuts or take people off the DDA waiting list.
DDA is an agency within the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene that provides funding for a wide range of services for thousands of individuals with developmental disabilities. The agency pays for these services with federal Medicaid and state funding. DDA's Fiscal 2012 budget is $800 million, including $455 million in state general funds. This represents an increase of more than $40 million from FY 2011. DDA expects to support services for approximately 25,000 people this year. They serve many of Maryland's most vulnerable citizens; developmentally disabled persons are children and adults with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism.
To put a human face on the state's failures, currently there are 6,500 Maryland residents on DDA's waiting list, 107 of them considered to be in critical crisis mode. "It's incredible," said Sen. Edward J. Kasemeyer, chairman of the Budget and Taxation Committee. "In an agency dying for money, this level of incompetency - it's terrible."
"Maryland has a responsibility to ensure that services for citizens with developmental disabilities are properly funded," Laura Howell, executive director of the Maryland Association of Community Services and chair of the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Coalition, told the Maryland Reporter. "That is currently not the case, which is why we are urging the governor to restore the unspent funds and reverse the painful budget cuts that were inflicted in FY 10."
The management breakdown at DDA is not news to the O'Malley Administration. Two years ago the state Office of Legislative Audits uncovered that the agency paid contractors for services to dead people, failed to properly monitor clients who lost their Medicaid eligibility, reported inaccurate information about waiting lists to the General Assembly and did not have adequate security for its information systems.
Rather than address their agency's failures, though, earlier this year the O'Malley Administration lobbied for a 50% increase in the alcohol tax intended to give DDA a fiscal boost. Among the most effective advocates for the increase was Maryland's disability support community. A new 9% sales tax went into effect in July after their lobbying.
"We had no idea that this mismanagement was taking place," said Nancy Pineles, developmental disabilities managing attorney for the Maryland Disability Law Center. "What's very hard to swallow is that at the same time that the services were underfunded, we were advocating our support for the alcohol tax."
But it gets even worse.
Marc Kilmer of the Maryland Public Policy Institute reports that although the tax hike was presented as a way to fund disability programs, when the tax passed the General Assembly most of the money went to new school construction. The allocation was divvied up based on politics, not on need. Baltimore City, Prince George's County and Montgomery County will receive $9 million each. The entire Eastern Shore will receive $1.25 million. In per-pupil terms, the Eastern Shore gets $27.07 for every student while Baltimore City gets $114.48.
How did the State legislators come up with the formula for their sleight of hand maneuver to reallocate the tax revenues intended for the disabled? Kilmer points out that in the first round of school construction projects approved by the Board of Public Works, every project was located in a district represented by a legislator who supported the tax hike. Legislators from Montgomery and Prince George's counties, and Baltimore City, overwhelmingly supported this tax hike. On the Eastern Shore, only Democratic Del. Rudy Cane voted for it.
The next time Governor O'Malley talks about his budget increases for Maryland's disabled, hopefully someone will be ready to ask - "But did they actually get the services you promised?
Mark Uncapher
Montgomery County Republican Chairman