Stop using West Virginians with disabilities for cheap politics

It has been a lot of speaking in circles and gaslighting.

Every few years, legislators and government administrators propose cuts to the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Waiver program, which most families know as the IDD Waiver program.

And every few years, West Virginians with disabilities fight against those cuts.

In 2015, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin announced a 4% cut for most state government agencies after a drop in coal and natural gas tax collections. That put the IDD Waiver program on the chopping block. 

Advocates organized. Families rallied at the state capitol. The funding stayed intact.

In 2017, legislators passed a budget bill that slashed $39 million from state Medicaid funding. These cuts would have jeopardized the continuation of many health services across West Virginia, including the IDD Waiver program. Gov. Jim Justice vetoed the bill and said it was time for lawmakers to grow up and stop playing politics.

In 2019, after a lot of planning and advocacy from West Virginians with disabilities, the governor collaborated with legislators to allot enough funding to clear the IDD Waiver waiting list, where West Virginians were waiting years for services. Over 1,000 West Virginians received slots. The governor vowed: “I will not support a budget that does not include a full elimination of the IDD Waiver waitlist.” 

Back then, according to a senior legislative adviser who previously worked for the then Department of Health and Human Resources, extra funding was supposed to be built into the state budget annually to keep people off this waitlist.

But it wasn’t. 

According to the commissioner for the West Virginia Bureau for Medical Services, the state Legislature did not build in that funding. “It was not increased from 2023, therefore, we do not anticipate adding more slots to reduce the [waitlist],” she said.

 At the very end of last month’s legislative session, the Senate again cut funding for the IDD Waiver program.

With a special session planned in May to work out budget issues, families and service providers again came to the state capitol building last week — arguably one of the least accessible to people with disabilities in the state — to fight for their funding.

And while they’ve heard from many legislators that the proposed $10 million funding cut will be reinstituted, why should they believe them? Do legislators or senior government administrators have good track records in caring for people with disabilities?

 Just last week, we learned that “money meant for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities was shuffled around to pay for other things” at the state Department of Human Services (DOHS).

Unkept promises and shady deals are why people with disabilities continue to advocate. 

The IDD Waiver program keeps people in their homes, in their communities, and out of institutions. It helps people work and give back. It keeps them safe. 

“It means I don’t get to go to Walmart to get groceries … It means my house bills don’t get paid, and it means I have to sit in my own waste for days until someone comes in,” Kevin Smith, a West Virginian with disabilities, said at the recent rally.

IDD Waiver program funding isn’t for families to receive, as our state has some of the toughest guidelines for those who qualify, and many individuals are on the waitlist for years before receiving services.

So why would lawmakers and bureaucrats continue to threaten to pull this funding? Money and politics.

Senate Finance Chairman Eric Tarr has articulated his frustrations with DOHS for reallocating funds. In his quest for transparency, he’d put IDD Waiver funding back on the chopping block instead of demanding that DOHS use the funding intended for individuals served by the IDD Waiver program to receive the much-needed services or an increase in pay for direct care workers. 

State government officials decided that individuals with disabilities didn’t need the funding during the COVID-19 pandemic, so they reallocated the funding, even though they had committed to eliminating the waitlist for services just a few years ago. Representatives from DOHS recently stated to a legislative committee that during the pandemic, IDD Waiver funds weren’t spent due to a lack of staffing or services, but instead of spending that money to bolster the workforce, it was used in part to purchase COVID-19 testing supplies.  

And now, the consequence of treating people with disabilities as pawns in these political games is threatening the basic human rights of over 6,000 West Virginians served by the IDD Waiver program. Over 500 individuals sit on its waitlist.

Lawmakers and state agencies, stop making people with disabilities rally to keep the programs and services they rely on intact. Stop pulling the rug out from under them, stop making promises that you don’t keep, stop making rash, last-minute decisions, and stop using them as pawns in political games that have nothing to do with them.

Everyone deserves to live with grace and dignity. Show West Virginians with disabilities enough compassion and respect to keep their funding off the chopping block for the next several years.