Kansas Health Institute | Information For Policy Makers. Health for Kansans.

Editor:

How financially bankrupt is the state of Kansas? The Governor’s proposed budget cuts funding for about 50,000 meals for senior citizens. This means that about 800 senior citizens will not get a hot, nutritious meal for the entire next year. His budget proposal also reduces funding for in home services for over 1,000 homebound seniors who are currently receiving those critical services to stay out of more costly nursing homes.

The state apparently has enough money to fund K-12 schools so they can build multi-million dollar swimming pools, refurbish athletic tracks, or hire hordes of lobbyists. The state apparently has enough money that we can import Italian marble for the exorbitantly costly statehouse renovation. Need I go on? Obviously the state is not that financially bankrupt.

So how morally bankrupt are we as a state? Is banning lap dancing or funding “the arts” more important than providing food to frail elders? Or caring for them when they can no longer care for themselves? How can anyone who claims to be “pro-life” support withdrawing critical life supporting food and care from home bound seniors?

We know that the last time in-home services for seniors were cut, we had waiting lists, and more low-income seniors ended up in nursing homes (at far greater taxpayer expense). We also know that there are still too many nursing homes where actual harm to residents has been cited (14 across the state in just the last quarter).

Are we so morally bankrupt that we care not for our elders, many of whom have sacrificed throughout their life to give the rest of us what we have today?

Surely we can do better than that! Surely we Kansans are not that bankrupt! Are we???

Jim Beckwith

Hoyt