Michael Meeks works at a deli filling relish cups. He knows how to cook meatballs and brownies, and he’s obsessed with order — to the point that clutter could trigger an anxiety attack.
And if the 23-year-old with mild cerebral palsy and a behavioral disorder wants to keep the state services that help him live, he can never go home again.
The Colorado rule that says people with developmental disabilities cannot live with family and still have access to 24-hour services is among those laws that legislators hope to change this year.
Lawmakers also plan to tackle a waiting list for services that is 12,000 people deep and — in some cases — stretches more than a decade.
“These people are all of our problems, not just the families that have to put them to bed at night,” said Christy Blakely, director of the advocacy group Family Voices Colorado.
The cause gathered momentum last fall as a legislative committee heard testimony from dozens of families fed up with Colorado’s meager financial commitment to people with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and other disabilities.
The result is a host of bills to help them get jobs, at-home care and therapy. But it’s too soon to tell how the issue can compete with big-ticket items such as health coverage for all Colorado children and billion-dollar plans to fix roads and bridges.
Already, a lawmaker’s plan to raise the state sales tax and eliminate the waiting list for services was dropped. Advocacy groups are preparing to put a proposal on November’s ballot raising the sales tax from 2.9 percent to 3.1 percent, about 2 cents for every $10.
It would cost $150 million per year to end the waiting list, according to a legislative estimate.
“There’s not an extra $150 million in the budget that no one else is using,” said Rep. Michael Garcia, D-Aurora. “The answer is very clear — to end the waiting list you need more money.”
Garcia dropped his sales tax proposal because “it wasn’t ready for prime time,” but he is pushing legislation that would let people with developmental disabilities live with their families and still have 24-hour care funded by the state.
A GOP-backed proposal would dedicate 2 percent of new general fund money each year for the next five years to services for the developmentally disabled. That would mean $8.5 million next year.
“We’ve been sent here to prioritize with the money we’ve been given,” said Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs.
Gardner refuses to identify which programs might lose cash if his bill becomes law. But some Democrats say that’s what would happen.
Advocacy groups, including the ARC of Colorado, are hoping their cause can tag along with a potential proposal to insure at least some of the 790,000 Coloradans without health coverage.
A governor’s panel is expected to pitch five multibillion-dollar proposals to the legislature this week.
“It’s too early in the session to determine if the legislature is going to take bigger steps to end a lot of crises that Colorado has,” said Darla Stuart, executive director of the ARC of Aurora.
The state is projected to spend $348 million this year on services for developmentally disabled adults and children, up from $260 million six years ago. In the same period, the waiting list for 24-hour services has gone 453 in 2001 to 1,368 in 2007.
Other legislation up for debate this year would create tax incentives for employers who hire people with disabilities, set up a state employment program and hire a “navigator” to help decide which people on waiting lists have the greatest need.
Meeks had been on the waiting list for years when the state called to offer him comprehensive services. The catch: He had to move away from his mother within three weeks.
Meeks spent a few lonely months with a host family and began to regress emotionally, said his mother, Marian Neely-Carlson. He now lives in an apartment with two roommates, but his family worries about Meeks losing services if he wanted to come home or live with a sibling.
“What happens if Michael’s roommates leave, and he needs to come home a little bit?” Neely-Carlson asked. “What happens if I pass away, and he wants to live with his brothers and sisters? It would be crushing.”
Jennifer Brown: 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com
