Chris Kiricoples is chief executive officer of Beaufort County Developmental Center.

As the General Assembly continues budget deliberations, I would like to bring attention to proposed deep cuts in preschool services and education, as well as continuing decreases in resources to our state’s Department of Health and Human Services agencies.

These cuts affect children benefiting from aggressive early education programs – who currently have access to a vastly improved, properly regulated child care system that has been carefully built over the past decade. They include toddlers newly diagnosed with autism, cerebral palsy or varying levels of mental retardation for whom the window of intervention opportunities is only briefly open. They include students who need specialized educational and vocational training in order to become productive, responsible young adults. And they include adults of all ages with a variety of mental health and/or developmental disabilities, who will require ongoing services and supports in order to maintain whatever success they are able to achieve and remain in their home communities, close to their families, instead of in a state hospital or institution. These budget discussions must recognize there are people behind each dollar.

Some members of the House proudly proclaim that their proposed budget will take us back to spending levels not seen since 2002-2003. Don’t we have an obligation to our most vulnerable citizens, like those described above? Isn’t that care and concern a core value that has shaped our society and made North Carolina a wonderful place to live? A great example is the proposed reduction to those services supported by Medicaid, which many have maligned. How many know that two-thirds of all Medicaid recipients are children, or that the next biggest group is people with disabilities, or that the group after that are the elderly? No one in these groups asked for the circumstances in which they č and their families č find themselves.

A presidential campaign a few years ago prominently displayed the slogan “compassionate conservatism.” When we stop caring about our children, or our disabled neighbors, or our frail or elderly citizens, shouldn’t we all begin to wonder where the compassion has gone? I understand that North Carolina is among 40 other states in the midst of serious financial difficulties, but is the only solution to destroy our educational and human-services delivery systems?

As the Senate takes up the responsibility for budget deliberations, I hope fit will realize its duties include the preservation of essential services and supports for the people of this state. This state and our citizens will not soon recover from the proposed funding reductions. There are other more balanced alternatives to this Legislature’s “cuts-only” approach to a balanced budget, but we will all need to remember some of the compassion we evidently once felt. If you are a consumer or family member of an individual who needs the services I have described, I urge you to contact your legislators immediately, and often, and to share your concerns about how you will be affected by these proposed funding reductions.

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