Advocates thought hard-fought battles over the Development Disabilities Administration budget were behind them — then the Moore administration dropped a supplemental budget Wednesday that cuts a fresh $28.8 million from the agency.
After successfully clawing back more than $300 million from the roughly $450 million in cuts that Gov. Wes Moore (D) originally proposed in his fiscal 2026 budget at the beginning of the session, advocates said they felt “betrayed” by the new cuts in the waning days of the session.
“I feel like our trust has been betrayed, because we worked so hard to come up with something that was reasonable and workable,” Tracy Wright, deputy director for People on the Go Maryland, said Friday morning outside the State House. “We’re going to lose dedicated direct support professionals.”
Advocates are particularly concerned about what they see as a last-minute proposal to cut a planned 1% raise for service providers.
In earlier budget go-rounds, the Moore administration and lawmakers had fought suggestions from state fiscal analysts to reduce the 1% cost of-living increase for health care providers across state, including those who support people with developmental disabilities.
But with the cuts needed for the state’s latest supplemental budget, those DDA provider increases were back on the chopping block. Senate leadership indicated Friday the cuts outlined in the second supplemental budget are likely going to stick around.
“We need those changes,” Budget and Taxation Chair Guy Guzzone (D-Howard) said in a news conference conference Friday. “We needed decisions on that to actually get to the balanced budget. They’re tough, but we’ve got to get out of here with a balanced budget.”
The elimination of the 1% increase for providers would save the state $14.4 million in general funding, which also removes $14.4 million from federal matching dollars through Medicaid.
Advocates worry that developmental disability service providers that were already facing staffing shortages before the legislative session began in January will just see the situation get worse with the new cuts.
“These cuts would affect whether direct support staff get a raise this year, which may affect whether they stay or seek a better paying job,” said Ken Capone, an advocate with developmental disabilities.
The Developmental Disabilities Administration serves some 18,000 Marylanders, but was hard hit by proposed budget cuts earlier in the year. By working with lawmakers and organizing well-attended rallies at the State House, the development disabilities community was able to whittle the cuts down to what it called “survivable” levels.
But Mat Rice, executive director for People on the Go Maryland, said that he was “disappointed” that new cuts were being considered this late in session.
“This is a very critical time for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families,” Rice said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen at the federal level, and we were relying on the state to hold the line.”
With the legislative session scheduled to end Monday, and budget negotiations between the House and Senate getting firmer by the hour, advocates fear time is running out to restore the new $28.8 million cut.
“If I am being completely honest … I don’t see that as a realistic possibility,” Rice said. “It’s just so late in the game.”
But the cut still stings, even after hundreds gathered on at Lawyer’s Mall and many nights of working with lawmakers to find a compromise in the tight budget year.
“To Marylanders with developmental disabilities, we just can’t take the cut,” Wright said. “We worked so hard.”
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