More than 1,000 Missourians traveled to the Capitol to attend Disability Rights Legislative Day. Lawmakers from both chambers have said they will try to restore $80.7 million in cuts proposed by Gov. Mike Kehoe
BY: Steph Quinn
Missouri Independent
Hundreds of Missourians with disabilities, their families and advocates crowded into the Capitol rotunda Wednesday for a rally on the state’s 25th annual Disability Rights Legislative Day, spilling into surrounding halls and onto the stairs framing the speakers’ podium.
Personal testimony from dozens of Missourians earlier this month moved a bipartisan group of lawmakers to pledge to restore $80.7 million in cuts to disability care services recommended in Gov. Mike Kehoe’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2027.
Suzie Parker, president of People First of Missouri, told the gathering that their stories are why lawmakers are scrambling to find funding for the services, which help people with disabilities live safely in their homes and participate actively in their communities.
“The impact is our story,” Parker said. “The impact is what [lawmakers] will take when they are arguing the bills on the House floor and how they affect our lives.”
Kehoe’s spending plan would cut $6.2 million in state spending on self-directed supports, a Medicaid program allowing individuals with disabilities or their families to hire and train specialized care staff. It would also slash $21.9 million in general revenue funding from structured group day programs, called day habilitation, and eliminate two other services, including one designed to help people with disabilities more independently navigate their communities.
In an online meeting of the Missouri SDS Family Support Group this week, steering committee member Larry Opinsky told more than a hundred attendees that as the House Budget Committee contemplates amendments to Kehoe’s budget, the time had come to focus on the Senate.
“This is a significant, significant thing that we’ve done in the House,” he said, “and [that] we’re planning on doing in the Senate.”
Like Parker, Opinsky said showing lawmakers the impact of the cuts has interrupted the routine of the Capitol.
“Jeff City operates on a regular basis with corporate lobbying,” Opinsky said. “…They are not used to hearing from individual families and stories from every corner of the state.”
Lawmakers’ discussion of the issue moved squarely into the Senate Wednesday, as Republican state Sen. Lincoln Hough of Springfield unveiled an alternative to Kehoe’s proposed budget.
Hough, who was ousted as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee in September, proposed restoring Kehoe’s cuts to disability services with $105 million, including $32 million in general revenue. To obtain more revenue for all of state government, Hough’s plan would take money from funds the state set aside in 2022 and 2023 for an underground expansion of the Capitol.
After Hough began introducing his budget package, Republican state Sen. Rusty Black of Chillicothe, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a press release he intends “to work with colleagues to restore these cuts [to disability services] as the Senate builds its budget.”
As lawmakers pitch ideas to sustain funding for these services, advocates cautioned that some of their proposals would be partial or short-term fixes, or entail cutting other parts of Missouri’s social safety net.
Republican state Rep. Darin Chappell of Rogersville, chair of the House subcommittee overseeing health, mental health and social services, said Monday that he plans to slice $500 million in general revenue spending from those departments’ budgets before they leave his desk, though he reiterated his promise to do his “dead-level best” to fund the disability services.
It’s not clear yet what would be targeted for cuts, or what Republican state Rep. Dirk Deaton of Seneca, chair of the House Budget Committee, would send to the full chamber.
But Christina Ingoglia, director of policy advocacy for the Missouri Developmental Disabilities Council, told The Independent that any cuts to the state’s safety net would impact people with disabilities.
“People with developmental disabilities are in all these populations,” Ingoglia said.
Lawmakers are also trying to generate funds from video lottery machines that would be licensed under a bill narrowly passed in the House last week. An amendment proposed by Republican state Rep. Melanie Stinnett of Springfield would earmark proceeds from an annual $250 fee per machine to fund “community services and support” for people with developmental disabilities.
Stinnett told The Independent that the measure could generate $7 million to $10 million annually after a transitional period when “gray-market” machines would be phased out.
That would not be enough to replace the $28.6 million in proposed cuts to disability services. Opinsky told The Independent that the amendment still “could be a piece of the puzzle.”
The video lottery bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Bill Hardwick of Dixon, could encounter headwinds in the Senate. Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin, a Shelbina Republican, has suggested that because federal courts have ruled the machines illegal, the state should be “clearing them out.”
O’Laughlin wrote in a social media post last week that the state should only make cuts impacting disabled Missourians “if there’s nowhere else to turn” and suggested finding savings through a “hiring and wage freeze” for state employees.
Stinnett said that if the bill carrying her amendment fails, she will “continue to search for other options” to fund the services.
“I viewed this as a really unique opportunity, especially in a tighter budget year, to find a space to create something that could not only be funded by this bill, but if created, then could accept grants and other funds,” Stinnett said.
Amid the buzz about potential funding sources, disability advocates and Missourians with disabilities at the Capitol this week emphasized the importance of services that help people play an active role in their communities.
Tierra Taylor, a direct support professional at United Cerebral Palsy in St. Louis, said day habilitation provides essential support to individuals with high needs.
“What other help would they have?” Taylor asked. “What other support would they have?”
Tosha Harper, a manager at Rainbow Abilities Center in Union, told The Independent that in addition to teaching life skills, the center lets clients have fun.
Outings are a highlight for Troy Kirk, who has been attending day habilitation at the center for seven years. He’s been to baseball games, a pickleball event center and the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis. He said these experiences have been “fantastic.”
His message to lawmakers? “No cuts, no buts, buy me lunch!”