Ralliers want funds for disabled
And on Monday, they came to the State Capitol to allow lawmakers to see their faces and hear their stories of waiting for services from the state's Division of Services for People With Disabilities.
"We don't want your pity, we just want your help," Amy Weyrich told the handful of legislators watching the crowd of more than 100 chant and wave signs urging full funding of the DSPD waiting list.
Weyrich's 5-year-old son, Sam, is among the more than 1,900 Utahns on the waiting list. Sam Weyrich has leukodystrophy, a rare genetic disease that leaves him unable to speak, sit up on his own or walk.
The Legislative Fiscal Analyst has estimated it would cost $8.4 million in ongoing money to fully fund the list — an amount recommended in Democrats' budget recommendations released last week.
"We can do it, we have the money," House Minority Whip Pat Jones, D-Salt Lake, told the crowd Monday. "It's just a matter of priorities."
The problem, Jones later said, is in convincing the Executive Appropriations Committee — the state's ultimate budgetary decision-making body — of the situation facing so many Utah families on a daily basis.
The needs are not confined simply to the 1,900 or so people on the DSPD list, said Ralph Hill, whose 22-year-old son is also waiting for services. It draws in extended families, neighbors.
In a legislative session consumed with talk of surpluses, it is time, Hill said, to "give more than lip service to an embarrassing social blemish."
Lisa-Michele Church, executive director of the Utah Department of Human Services, has placed funding the DSPD waiting list as one of her top priorities.
The Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee also placed the DSPD list at No. 2 on its priority list, just under restoring some $30 million lost to the department through federal budget cuts.
However, the legislative committee recommended just $1.6 million in ongoing funds — well short of the amount necessary to fully fund the list and not nearly enough to help all Utahns now in need, many said Monday.
"One to 2 million will alleviate some symptoms, but it won't cure the problem," Weyrich said.
According to an economic impact prepared by the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research, an $8.4 million investment by the state would bring $20.6 million in matching federal dollars. It would also support 661 jobs for Utahns on the disabled list, generating $18.6 million in earnings and about $1.85 million in state and local tax revenue.
The impact statement was prepared for the Utah Developmental Disabilities Council and the Disability Community Alliance, which organized Monday's rally.
E-mail: awelling@desnews.com
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