TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A bipartisan group of Shawnee County legislators has managed to strip the House budget of a provision that would have frozen admissions to the Kansas Neurological Institute.
The Topeka Capital-Journal (http://bit.ly/FQj46t ) reports that lawmakers led by Rep. Annie Kuether, a Topeka Democrat, introduced an amendment on the House floor Friday to overturn the one-year freeze. One Topeka legislator after another lined up to support the amendment, saying KNI provides unique and necessary services to Kansans with severe disabilities. The measure passed 75-46.
The admissions freeze was proposed by Social Services Budget Committee chairman Dave Crum, an Augusta Republican, who spoke against Kuether’s amendment on the floor. He says there’s been no attempt to close KNI, but that there’s a trend to home-and-community-based services for the developmentally disabled.
