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Thompson: The cost of closing state-funded institute

By Dan Thompson

Friday, November 6, 2009

The latest victim of the state government’s fiscal woes may be the Kansas Neurological Institution, which provides life-sustaining but costly services to the 150 severely disabled residents who live on its Topeka campus.

With a seven to three vote, the state’s Facilities Closure and Realignment Commission recently recommended that the Institute be shut down within three years, citing the need to shift state support for the disabled from large institutions like KNI to smaller, more economical community housing.

This might be acceptable if such an alternative were currently available, but it isn’t. With over 4,000 people on the waiting list for state disability services, there is scant possibility that the residents of KNI will presently be able to find enough facilities with a comparable level of care. Keeping KNI open is expensive, but its closure must at the very least be postponed until more suitable community housing can be provided.

KNI’s proposed closure has generated some controversy in the local press. The Topeka Capital-Journal recently editorialized in opposition to the cuts, pointing out that almost 90 percent of the 158 people who live at group homes on the institute’s campus in Topeka have profound intellectual disabilities, two-thirds cannot walk, 82 percent cannot speak, two-thirds have a history of seizures and the vast majority has lived at KNI for at least a decade.

The Facilities Closure and Realignment Commission laid out its proposal on Oct. 26 for the Institute’s eventual closure. The plan entails transferring 40 residents from KNI to Parson’s State Hospital, and moving the rest to group homes. On top of that, 62 current residents at Parsons would be relocated to group homes.

The Commission cited the projected savings of $5.7 million as the principle reason to shutter KNI. The recession has left Kansas with a gaping hole in tax revenues and a sizable budget deficit, and because the state is required by law to maintain a balanced budget, Gov. Mark Parkinson and the Republican-dominated Kansas Legislature now share the unhappy task of cutting back many services that the state provides for its citizens.

Roughly half of the state’s budget pays for K-12 education, which the state is constitutionally obligated to finance, so social services — along with higher education — must bear much of the deficit’s burden.

Students should be aware of how our state government spends our tax dollars and how budget cuts will impact fellow Kansans. I believe these cuts must spare state assistance to the most severally disabled and their families, who, by no fault of their own, must shoulder the substantial responsibility and cost of caring for their disabled family members.

In the long run, it may be more fiscally prudent to close this facility, but before this happens the state must provide enough resources for KNI’s residents to be moved into suitable community housing. Whatever ultimately happens, the people of Kansas should continue to share in the responsibility of caring for the neediest among us.

— Thompson is a Topeka senior in economics.

Comments

sjschlag (anonymous) says...

Sorry to bring up this topic but it's related I swear!

Where do you think a good chunk of homeless people come from? If you guessed institutes like KNI, you are correct! Thanks to Ronnie Regan's programs to cut spending in the 1980s, many government institutions that cared for people with mental and developmental disabilities were shut down and their residents put out on the street.

Our government clearly needs to figure out a way to provide support to these people, more than likely it will cost more in the long run if families are forced to pay for the care of these patients (which will likely happen thanks to that 4000 person waiting list.) Either that or they will be forced out on the street like the last batch of institutionalized people.

November 9, 2009 at 12:49 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

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