Elderly residents who faced losing millions in services as legislators cut the state budget won a reprieve last week.
State legislators working on the heath and human services budget decided to restore money that helps counties pay for elderly care, and lifted a proposed age restriction on an adult day care fund that would have prohibited spending the money on people older than 59.
Putting $4.2 million back into the community grant fund helps preserve services for thousands of older residents who were in danger of being dropped, said Mary Bethel of AARP North Carolina.
"We're just really glad the money got restored," she said.
Counties use the $57.7 million grant to provide services such as home-delivered meals, in-home aid and adult day care. More than 17,000 are waiting for grant-funded services.
In a tight budget year that has seen money for state services shrink, restoring the grant money was one good outcome of the contentious budget process, said state Rep. Verla Insko, a Chapel Hill Democrat.
"For people who need help temporarily, it makes a big difference," she said.
Budget writers were concerned about making cuts to elderly services and looked for ways to restore some of the money, said Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Cary Republican and a leader on the House health and human services budget-writing team.
Overall, the committee cut $462 million from the health and human services budget to get to $4.5 billion.
"For programs that involve the aged, we were looking to minimize the level of reductions for those services," he said.
The budget still has a long way to go before it becomes final. A vote of the full House is more than a week away. Then the Senate will write its version of the budget.
The House and Senate will agree on a plan before it goes to Gov. Bev Perdue.
A provision that worried residents caring for elderly relatives, which would have reserved money from the state Adult Day Care Fund for adults younger than 60, was rewritten.
The budget committee decided to give preference to people ages 18-59, but older people would not be barred from getting help from the fund.
Perdue had proposed the restriction because the community grants can also be used for adult day care. But older people's access to adult day care would have been squeezed between the age restriction and the proposed community grant reduction.
The N.C. Adult Day Services Association issued a call to family care givers to contact legislators about lifting the age limit.
"This allows us some flexibility to be able to serve whichever population needs the money most," said Teresa Johnson, the association's executive director. "We're delighted they are making some positive change to keep people in their homes."
Margaret Toman of Garner, who cares for her 97-year-old mother, sent letters to 20 legislators about the importance of adult day care.
Toman's mother has advanced dementia but likes to be around people and has attended adult day care for four years.
"This complements her natural self and is a godsend for me," Toman said.
