Just two weeks after announcing a $4.5 million cut to the state-owned Lee Specialty Clinic, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said he had found funds elsewhere in the budget to reverse the slash that would have left more than 1,000 Kentuckians with intellectual and developmental disabilities without services.
Beshear has continuously blamed the state budget, set by the Republican-led legislature, saying it didn’t provide enough money to maintain services. GOP lawmakers meanwhile argue Beshear should focus on finding waste and inefficiencies and should not cut essential programs, like the clinic. The top Republican in the state House accused Beshear of creating a crisis “just so he can appear to save the day.”
The governor said he would pull the money from a totally different budget unit — the funds currently allocated to renovating the Kentucky Capitol Annex, which sits across from the Capitol and holds committee rooms and the offices of lawmakers and their staff. Beshear said the project wouldn’t be able to start for years anyways while the main state Capitol remains under construction.
“In other words, that's millions of dollars that are sitting there in bond payments that will not otherwise be used, so I'm using the flexibility that they claim that I have to move that funding for the annex, and it's going to be used to fund the Lee Specialty Clinic for the next fiscal year,” Beshear said.
Beshear emphasized it was a short-term “band-aid solution” and called on the General Assembly to return with more funding in January, when they are back in session. Democratic Rep. Lindsey Burke, from Lexington, joined the governor to call for higher funding levels.
“We don't need building projects nearly as much as disabled Kentuckians and their families need Lee's Specialty Clinic to remain open, to have the [Cabinet for Health and Family Services] cuts reversed and Kentucky's Medicaid program fully funded,” Burke said.
In a statement, Republican House Speaker David Osborne of Prospect said the situation was “unwarranted” and of Beshear’s own making, needlessly causing anxiety among Kentuckians who rely on Lee Clinic’s services.
“Funding for the Lee Clinic has been included in the budget passed by the General Assembly from the very beginning. That is why the Governor's claims are so troubling. They created uncertainty for patients, families, caregivers, and providers who depend on these services every day,” Osborne wrote. “Suggesting that this program was at risk when the funding was there all along was both irresponsible and unnecessarily cruel to those already facing difficult circumstances.”
Beshear defended the decision to slash the clinic’s funding out of the Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities. The department is receiving an increase of roughly $16 million in each of the next two years in the new budget compared to current funding levels. However, the annual allotment is roughly $12 million less than what Beshear recommended in his budget proposal.
The governor said much of that funding is obligated under federal and state laws, and therefore his administration can only make cuts in the remaining 11%, which includes funding for nursing facilities, community homes and specialty clinics — the latter being the smallest component. Beshear said at the press briefing he would provide a list of other programs receiving cuts, which his spokesperson said they are compiling.
The announcement came the day after hundreds of Kentuckians flooded committee rooms in Frankfort, begging lawmakers and the administration to work together to solve the funding snafu. Caregivers, disabled Kentuckians and a doctor at the clinic testified that no other provider in Kentucky is able to provide the same specialized care to the vulnerable and medically complex population.
Kim Thompson, whose 29-year-old son finally received a diagnosis for his developmental disorder thanks to the clinic, asked not to be treated as “political pawns.”
“We know that the support is coming from the legislature and I know it's coming from the cabinet, but for some reason a ball got dropped, and for some reason the patients became the ball in whatever game was going on, I just ask that it stop,” Thompson said. “This is really about human lives. We have people who rely on this clinic.”
When asked about the fear among several caregivers that they and their children are being used for a political end, Beshear said he would never use people as pawns.
“When the General Assembly implemented these cuts, they knew or should have known that this is the only place that it could go,” Beshear said. “And so what we've done is tried our best to prevent that pain.”
This is the second time that Beshear has announced a spending cut before quickly revealing he had found a solution. Earlier this month, Beshear announced cuts to Medicaid, foster care and other social service programs before saying he had found $30 million from other outdated programs elsewhere in the budget.
Despite that additional funding, the Beshear administration also sent letters to Medicaid fee-for-service providers this month, informing them of a 4% cut to their reimbursement rates across the board.
