By Bill Cotterell • Florida Capital Bureau•
Published: April 14. 2011 5:09PM

Gov. Rick Scott agreed today to lift his emergency
order mandating massive reductions in state
payments to group homes and other caregivers who
tend to thousands of physically and
developmentally disabled Floridians.

“I’m very hopeful. We need to do it,” Scott said. “It’s
an important group of people, individuals, so we’re
working with the House and the Senate.”

The formal executive order rescinding one Scott
issued March 31 will go out early next week, his
staff said. But the governor met with legislators and
received assurances that budget negotiators would
fill a $174 million shortage in the budget of the
Agency for Persons with Disabilities.

“Families and advocates are frightened, frayed and
exhausted,” said Sylvia Smith, public affairs director
for Disability Rights Florida Inc., an advocacy
group. “It’s badly needed good news.”

In issuing the earlier order for 15-percent
minimum cuts in APD payments to providers, Scott
said he had no choice because of the projected
$174 million shortfall through the remainder of this
fiscal year. But the House moved to plug the gap in
its version of the budget and the Senate leadership
agreed to do the same, although an APD item is not
in the pending Senate version of the budget.

House and Senate budget talks will not start until
after the Easter break but the signal clears the way
for payments to be kept at standard rates. Many
group homes and individual providers had begun
cutting services, saying they were unable to cope
with cuts that went as high as 35 or 40 percent for
some commercial operations that lost administrative
fees in addition to the standard 15 percent rate cut.