Disabled people in Maryland try to ask state comptroller to stop more budget cuts

From the Cumberland Times-News:

CUMBERLAND, Md. — Wayne Chase wanted his voice to be heard Monday when he picketed outside Fort Hill High School with about 20 others from Allegany County’s disabled community.

Sitting in a wheelchair, holding a sign that said, “Speak 4 the Unspoken,” Chase waited more than an hour to ask Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot to spare the disabled community from further budget cuts.

But Franchot, who got stuck in traffic after a wreck on Interstate 70, never saw the picketers, who had to leave before he finally arrived an hour and a half later.

“I wish I had seen them. I would like to have talked to them,” said Franchot, who later this week will help the governor and treasurer decide how to cut another $350 million from the state’s budget.

Programs for the disabled will likely face additional cuts, he said.

“I’m supporting a majority of the cuts because it’s the fiscal responsibility of the state to keep its books in order,” said Franchot, whose visit to Fort Hill wasn’t related to budget cuts. “But I’m very concerned about (the disabled) community. ... I think they tend to get cut more than other entities because they’re viewed as politically powerless, politically weak.”

Monday afternoon’s picket was an attempt to raise the disabled community’s profile and make its needs known, said Diane Chase, registered nurse and director of United Cerebral Palsy’s Cumberland office.

The agency brought three vanloads of clients to the high school to await Franchot’s arrival.

“We just wanted to put a face on the disability cuts,” said Diane Chase, who helped clients make signs to carry. “Save the Disabled,” one said. “Don’t Cut Our Funding,” said another.

“These are human beings with lives.”

State leaders have already implemented $400 million in cuts to reduce the state’s $700 million deficit. On Wednesday, the governor is expected to announce additional cuts.

“We realize it’s a tight budget,” Diane Chase said. “We understand all that. But our individuals are very scared of what’s going to happen to them. ... So many of them can’t speak for themselves, so that’s why we’re just trying to speak out for them.”

Wayne Chase, who lives in one of the UCP’s residences in Maryland, said he’d never participated in a picket before.

“This is tearing everybody up, the budget cuts,” Wayne Chase said. “It’s too much.”