Maryland Health Secretary Joshua Sharfstein told a town hall meeting in Columbia Tuesday night that the troubled Developmental Disabilities Administration has made significant progress since discovering $34 million in unspent funds last year.
“It looks like we’re in the red” by $4 million or $5 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, “which is a good thing for this agency,” Sharfstein said, “but we don’t know yet.”
MarylandReporter.com was honored Tuesday night by the Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for a package of stories that uncovered the failure of one state agency to spend $38 million on people with developmental disabilities, even while thousands waited for services.
Read MoreMany people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are being left behind or underserved by state and national governments – including thousands in Maryland, according to a new study released on Tuesday.
Read MoreThe families of the developmentally disabled have been making a compelling case for what has seemed impossible. They want to raise the alcohol taxes that haven’t been touched in decades in order to fund services to more than 40,000 people in Maryland who are retarded, autistic, and brain-injured.
More than 2,000 people have attended eight town meetings across the state, and dozens have put a human face on the disabled needing services, many in wheelchairs.
Read MoreIn Howard County, disabled people, their parents and caregivers told stories about their experiences, railing against the repeated cuts and flat appropriations that have left Maryland 43rd among the states in helping the developmentally disabled. Legislators from both parties laid the responsibility on the governor, and the leaders of their organizations agreed.
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