Print edition: 
TOPEKA — Advocates for Kansans with developmental disabilities asked the Kansas Supreme Court to stop cuts to their programs and restore the money.
"The actions that cut spending on paper cut into the lives of people," said InterHab executive director Tom Laing.
A petition filed Friday by InterHab, an association for developmental disability service providers, seeks a temporary restraining order and asks that $10 million cut by the governor and Legislature be returned.
The cuts mean services for Topeka advocate Nancy Spano's daughter Heather have been greatly scaled back. Heather is 24, but health problems and severe developmental disabilities mean she functions more like a 5- or 8-year-old child.
Spano said her daughter needs round-the-clock care and help with basic hygiene. After the cuts, Heather was left alone at night and had no staff for help on the weekends. She frequently called her parents at all hours of the night, frightened.
"She is alone, she is afraid, she is scared. There is nobody to take care of her," Spano said. "To us this is a very dangerous situation. How many of you would leave a 5- to 8-year-old child in a home with no one to care for them in the dark? If you did, you'd face child abuse charges."
Spano said she and her husband put their daughter into the system to try to foster independence.
The group did not offer suggestions for where money should come from to restore the cuts — $10 million plus a 10 percent cut in reimbursements for Medicaid providers. That is up to the governor and lawmakers, Laing said.
Over the last year, lawmakers and the governor have cut about $1 billion from the original $6.4 billion 2009 state budget. Lawmakers now are wrestling with the 2011 budget, which has a $400 million-plus gap in revenue.
Gov. Mark Parkinson, a Democrat, announced about $85 million in cuts to the current budget last week after revenue collections for the state fell short of expectations.
Lawmakers expressed disappointment with the disability group's action.
"We've asked all recipients of state funds to hold off on suing the state while we go through this very challenging economic time," Parkinson said Friday. "My view is the schools, the people that have had their funds swept and now InterHab should just hold off while we get through this economic crisis."
Rep. Jim Ward of Wichita, the assistant Democratic leader in the House, said the situation is frustrating and disappointing.
"It is frustrating that folks that depend on the state and Legislature are feeling desperate enough to use the court system to compel us to do our job," he said.
Lawmakers need to start debating the 2011 budget so people can see what more cuts might come, he said.
The petition maintains that cuts to services for people with developmental disabilities violate the law — specifically Article 7, Section 1 of the Kansas Constitution — which says "institutions for the benefit of mentally or physically incapacitated or handicapped persons, and such other benevolent institutions as the public good may require, shall be fostered and supported by the state."
"This is not something that was undertaken lightly. How the Legislature responds to this really is entirely up to them," said Rod Murrow, the lawyer representing InterHab. "The ability to pay does not govern whether or not you owe something. This is owed, and it is owed as a matter of law."
The suit comes late in the session and in the 2010 budget year, which ends June 30.
By the time the session ends, few days are left in the budget year, said Senate President Stephen Morris, R-Hugoton. He called the lawsuit unfortunate.
"I understand their concerns, but we have a difficult balancing act that we have to do to spread very sparse resources among our most vulnerable citizens," he said.
The group wanted to give the Legislature time to respond to the cuts, some of which Parkinson proposed in November.
Even if a court decision came after the end of the fiscal year, the money could still be restored, Murrow said. He also hoped that a court decision in their favor would prevent future cuts.
