ANNAPOLIS — An effort by the Department of Health to get public input Friday on $200 million in proposed cuts to the Developmental Disabilities Administration instead left advocates feeling frustrated and confused.
Advocates who took part in the virtual meeting said the hour set aside for it was not nearly long enough for state officials to fully explain the eight different categories of cuts under consideration, and left little time for community members to ask clarifying questions.
“The families just feel like it was a meeting to have a meeting — and their voices were not heard. It’s that simple,” Andre Coats, executive director for Maryland Community Connection, said after the call.
Coats said she received numerous calls and texts from families she works with who felt frustrated by the meeting with leaders at the Developmental Disabilities Administration. Laura Howell, CEO with Maryland Association of Community Services, said that a lot of the confusion comes from the “complex” nature of the state’s developmental disability system and the proposed budget cuts.
“It can be challenging for a lot of people affected by these budget cuts to give feedback … because it is such a complex system, and we still lack a lot of clarity in the exact nature of what the budget cuts will be,” she said after the meeting. “We know, in general, what they’re talking about, but many of us … still have questions about the specificity of the proposals — and how those cuts are implemented have a huge impact on peoples’ lives.”
The cuts she was talking about are the $200 million in reductions to the budget for the DDA, one of the biggest cuts as Democrat Gov. Wes Moore works to close a projected $3 billion deficit in the fiscal 2026 state budget.
The developmental disability community strongly opposes those cuts, which they fear would threaten access to some programs and reduce wages for certain support staff. Their frustrations culminated in a rally Monday that brought several hundred to Annapolis, urging lawmakers to fight back against Moore’s proposed cuts.
But state officials say that the hard decisions on the DDA are necessary to keep the state afloat amid the state deficit and growing costs of the agency.
Deputy Secretary Marlana Hutchinson told attendees in Friday’s virtual meeting that the agency was looking for feedback on how to implement those cuts in a way that reduces impact on the affected community — but she also said she stood behind Moore’s budget, to the dismay of many of the meeting attendees.
“I do want to say that we support our governor, and we also support the proposed budget, which also includes record investments into our service delivery systems,” she said.
Hutchinson noted that the proposed budget includes a record $1.3 billion for the rapidly growing DDA program. But state officials have had to trim its growth, saying gains of recent years are not sustainable.
“We have an unsustainable system. The investments will help us support, maintain what we have, and also supporting additional enrollment,” she said. “And we have to look at the service delivery model at large to bring things into a sustainable system.”
Many of the participants struggled to follow how the cuts would be proposed and implemented in the first place. When the DDA discussed a proposal to remove a rate increase for providers who work in certain counties, one participant told the officials that it was “very hard to envision what this is going to look like” based on how they explained the proposal.
Another participant had to ask for clarification on a proposal that would affect how certain one-on-one work hours are calculated because she was “not sure what the change is” after state officials described it on the webinar.
One of Moore’s proposals would eliminate the Low-Intensity Support Services program, which provides additional funds to help qualifying families afford additional expenses incurred when caring for a person with developmental disabilities. The program offers one-time payments to a limited number of families selected on a random basis.
But Hutchinson initially said the administration would “suspend” the program before saying the governor plans to eliminate it, leaving some audience members confused.
Attendees were also frustrated with the length of the meeting. With an hourlong meeting to cover eight different DDA-related budget proposals, participants were left with just two minutes to speak. By the end of the webinar, some of the proposed cuts had to be rushed through in just a couple minutes.
“Listening to everyone, you did hear some frustration with the time limit,” Howell said. “I think it’s a lot of information to take in.
“There are a lot of time pressures on everyone including the leaders at DDA. But I think two minutes to address each of those complex issues — you can understand why people were frustrated,” she said. “Hopefully there will be future opportunities for these discussions.”
Hutchinson told participants that there would be additional meetings and opportunities to hear from the community on the proposed budget cuts. She thanked audience members for their feedback and said she was open to any additional comments on “approaches to implementation.”
But both Howell and Coats said many attendees felt frustrated by the conversation.
“I’m glad the DDA had the meeting. I’m glad they asked for feedback, but I think the complexity of the budget cuts, and the lack of information on how the cuts would be implemented made the meeting really challenging for a lot people,” Howell said.