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TOPEKA — Advocates for the disabled planted 58 white, wooden crosses in the ground outside the Statehouse, trying to draw attention to cuts in services for the disabled.

“Each cross represents someone who died while they were waiting for home and community services – they were on the waiting list,” said Rick Knight, advocacy coordinator at the Southeast Kansas Independent Living Center (SKIL) in Parsons.

“We’re not here to protest,” Knight said. “We’re here to meet with our legislators, to talk to them about the crisis that’s going on in the state right now.”

Knight, 64, said advocates from across the state met with legislators Tuesday and Wednesday.

The group, he said, is baffled by legislators going along with Gov. Mark Parkinson’s decision to cut Medicaid-funded services by 10 percent.

“We’re told that saved the state something like $22 million. OK, but it also meant the state walked away from three times that much in federal match,” Knight said. “How does that make sense? You give up $66 million to keep from spending $22 million?”

Knight said he and other SKIL representatives have attended weekend question-answer sessions with several legislators from southeast Kansas.

“I asked (Senate Majority Leader) Derek Schmidt (R-Independence) in Fredonia to explain how this makes sense and he looked right at me and said, ‘It doesn’t.’”

Knight, who uses a wheelchair, has multiple sclerosis.

The governor also said the cuts were "bad policy," but that he had no choice because the state constitution requires a balanced budget. He has proposed raising taxes so that the Medicaid cuts can be restored in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Knight said legislators are being asked to restore the Medicaid cuts and to “unfreeze” the state’s waiting list for in-home services for people with physical disabilities.

“Right now, the only people we know of who are moving off the list are those in what they call crisis situations,” Knight said. “And to be in a crisis situation, your condition is supposed to be terminal.”

Other crisis situations include confirmed cases of abuse, neglect, exploitation, and domestic abuse.

Last month, 1,728 physically disabled adults were on the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services’ waiting list.

Security officers prohibited the group from handing out fliers in the Statehouse. The crosses were removed late Wednesday morning.