Nancy Hicks, Lincoln Journal Star
April 7, 2009

Senators on the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee say they are not going to earmark more money for the Beatrice State Developmental Center until they get better answers from the state on how the money will be spent.

“We are flying blind” on giving them more money, said Omaha Sen. Jeremy Nordquist, one of several frustrated Appropriations Committee members.

Three senators have asked John Wyvill, director of the Department of Developmental Disabilities, for a clear idea on how his agency plans to spend an additional $27 million to $32 million for improving BSDC and moving more residents into community programs.

Nordquist sent a letter to Wyvill several weeks ago. Omaha Sen. Health Mello asked for details during a public hearing in late March, and Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop asked for the budget during a public meeting with Wyvill on Thursday. Wyvill told both Mello and Lathrop he would get them the budget details.

The question has been posed and there has been no answer, said Sen. John Harms of Scottsbluff. “I’m thinking they don’t have a plan,” he said during the Appropriations Committee discussion Monday.

The committee agreed to delay decisions on BSDC funding until it has a chance to talk with Lathrop, chairman of a special BSDC legislative committee, and get more detailed budget information from the administration.

Several senators pointed out that the state has to fund BSDC, even if they get no answers. “These people have to be taken care of. We have to put the dollars (in the budget). I’m just a little frustrated,” said Harms.

“It’s not that we don’t want to fund them. But we have to have some kind of budget plan,” said Mello.

Senators had questions on several issues.

Harms said he wants to know the state plan for moving people from BSDC and from local hospitals to community programs. That would involve about $10 million in additional state funding over the next two years.

Harms said he wonders whether there are enough doctors, nurses and psychiatrists, particularly in rural areas, to provide care at community programs.

“Is our next crisis going to be community-based care?”

Mello also wants to know how the state will spend between $17 million to $22 million over three years in additional funds that the Department of Health and Human Services says it needs to improve services at BSDC.

He’s also concerned about the increasing costs to run BSDC during a time Wyvill has said the resident population will drop from about 187 people to 90 to 120 people.