Public to Walker: Don't cut human-services programs

To 27-year-old Jessica Nell of Green Bay, Gov. Scott Walker's proposed $68 billion state budget reads like a life sentence to a nursing home.

Nell, who uses a wheelchair, says the current state budget enables her to live independently, providing a stipend so she can employ an aide to help her with things she struggles to do: cooking, bathing, personal care. But the biennial spending proposal now being debated at the state level, she fears, would eliminate a program called IRIS — and with it, her ability to remain independent.

"Families aren't going to be able to care for children who have significant needs," said Nell, who has a master's degree and plans to be a social worker. "I picture nursing homes filling up. But I'm only 27! Nursing homes aren't for people my age."

Nell is one of dozens of people who implored state lawmakers this week to restore some of the administration's proposed changes to human-services programs, which would take effect in January 2017. Human services clients, workers volunteers and Democratic elected officials say the proposed changes would trade an effective, community-centered system for a state-wide approach that likely would be run by insurance companies from outside Wisconsin.

Walker's administration has regularly said it is seeking to operate government more efficiently and thereby reduce the costs borne by taxpayers — not an uncommon theme for a Republican governor.

"This really is about getting better outcomes for our members," state Health Services Secretary Kitty Rhoades told the Journal Sentinel earlier this month. "And this is what I believe is the most efficient way to do it."

But even some GOP lawmakers are expressing fears that some of the proposed changes cut too far.

"I question the changes to Family Care," State Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Allouez, said Monday. "We're the last region of the state to get it, and now it could be ripped away from us."

Walker's proposal would allow the state to halt programs including IRIS, which allows its more than 10,000 participants to hire their own caregivers and otherwise spend their support money in a manner they feel best meets their needs. IRIS is an acronym for its mission: "Include, Respect, I Self-direct."

Four Democratic leaders called on Walker Tuesday to eliminate cuts to human services programs, charging that the proposals "would dismantle the state's long-term care system."

"This is one of the proposals that makes the least sense," Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, said at a hearing Democrats held at Green Bay West High School. "The only language in it is (words like) 'delete' and 'dismantle.'"

Hintz, State Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay; Rep. Eric Genrich and Amanda Stuck, D-Appleton, hosted the hearing.

Hintz and three other lawmakers say Walker's proposed changes to Family Care, IRIS and the SeniorCare prescription-drug assistance program "blindsided" the estimated 50,000 families that would be impacted, and that not even Rhoades was aware that the changes would be floated.

"The citizens of our state have been unified in their opposition ... the proposed changes would come too fast, negatively impact the quality of care, and create uncertainty about the future of services," the letter states. It is signed by sens. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, and Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton; Hintz and and Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison.

On Monday in Howard, Cowles and reps. Dave Steffen, R-Howard; and Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, hosted a listening session to hear constituents' concerns about the budget. Several speakers voiced concerns similar to Nell's.

Linda Hansen of Howard said assistance from the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Brown County — one of the agencies on the chopping block — helped her father end "a cycle of emergency-room visits ... for about half the price of a private agency."

"Please don't close them or privatize them," she said. "They are far more than just a line item in a budget."

— dschneid@greenbaypressgazette.com and follow him on Twitter @PGDougSchneider