Maryland Advocates Clawed Back $300 Million in Disability Cuts: Here’s the Playbook
Maryland’s governor proposed cutting $457 million from the Developmental Disabilities Administration. Ten weeks later the House Appropriations Committee restored $300 million of it. The method is repeatable and Michigan families should study it.
Maryland’s win happened between January and late March because that is when the decision existed. Testimony delivered in June is a letter to the editor. Testimony delivered while a committee is marking up the bill is a vote. Every state publishes its budget calendar, the committee hearing schedule is public, and sign-up for public testimony is usually open to any resident. Knowing the date is the entire difference between advocacy that lands and advocacy that feels good.
$457M
The proposed cut
The reduction to the Developmental Disabilities Administration in Maryland’s fiscal 2026 budget as introduced. Advocates called it catastrophic and meant it literally.
Two organizations, one message
The Arc Maryland and the Maryland Association of Community Services led. Families and providers said the same things in the same weeks, which is rarer and more powerful than it sounds.
Hundreds in the building
State House rallies brought hundreds of people to the Capitol. Legislators are moved by turnout in a way they are not moved by email volume.
$157M
Still cut
Roughly $157 million in reductions survived, including the geographic differential rate and a cut to Low-Intensity Support Services from $5.5 million to $2 million rather than full elimination.
The precedent year
In fiscal 2025 the governor’s supplemental budget had already restored much of a contemplated $200 million cut. Advocates had run this play once and knew the timeline.
They did not overclaim
“These cuts are painful, but oh my gosh, they were going to be catastrophic.” That is how a credible advocate describes a partial win, and credibility is what you spend next year.
The Maryland timeline
These cuts are painful, but oh my gosh, they were going to be catastrophic. It was such a big day for our community. It represented unprecedented cooperation.
Run the same play in Michigan
The sequence, in order
- 1Get the budget calendar. Find when the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees take up health and human services, and mark every hearing date.
- 2Read the fiscal agency summary of the proposed budget and find the specific line items affecting your services. Name them by number.
- 3Coordinate before you testify. Agree with the provider associations and family groups on the two or three asks everyone will repeat.
- 4Sign up to testify. Public testimony is open to residents and three minutes is the standard slot.
- 5Bring people to the building on a hearing day. Turnout is the variable legislators actually respond to.
- 6Name the partial win honestly when it comes, and start on the remainder the same week.
What effective testimony contains
- One specific person and one specific day, described in ninety seconds
- The exact line item and dollar figure you are asking about
- What the cut costs the state elsewhere, in institutional or crisis spending
- A number from a neutral source, not an advocacy organization
- One clear ask that a committee can actually vote on
- Your county, so the members from your area know you are theirs
- A written copy submitted for the record, even if you speak
- A thank-you to members who have helped before, by name
Maryland did not win because it made a better moral argument. It won because it made the argument during the ten weeks when the decision was open.
In January 2025 Maryland’s governor proposed cutting $457 million from the agency that funds services for adults with developmental disabilities. By late March, $300 million of it was back. I have read everything I can find about how that happened, because Michigan families keep asking me what actually works.
The honest answer is that what works is unglamorous, well documented, and almost entirely about timing. There is no secret. There is a calendar, and Maryland’s advocates knew what was on it.
What they were up against
The Developmental Disabilities Administration is Maryland’s equivalent of the funding stream that reaches your family member’s day program, residential provider, and support staff. The fiscal 2026 budget as introduced proposed taking $457 million out of it. That is not a trim. That is a structural reduction that would have closed programs.
It also was not the first attempt. In fiscal 2025 a contemplated $200 million cut had largely been restored through the governor’s supplemental budget. So the community entered 2025 having already run this play once, which matters more than any single tactic. They knew the timeline, they knew who moved last time, and they knew what a restoration looks like mechanically.
The three things they actually did
They worked the window, not the year. Maryland’s legislative session runs January to early April. The restoration happened on March 24, with about two weeks left. Everything that mattered happened inside a ten week span, because that is when the decision was live. Advocacy delivered outside that window is a letter to the editor. Advocacy delivered inside it is an input to a vote.
They put bodies in the building. Weeks of lobbying and public testimony, plus State House rallies that brought hundreds of people to Annapolis. I want to be blunt about why this works, because it is not sentimental. Legislators receive thousands of emails and can process none of them. A hundred people in a hallway on a hearing day is a physical fact they have to walk past, and it signals an organized constituency rather than a mailing list.
They spoke with one voice across two constituencies. The Arc Maryland, which represents families, and the Maryland Association of Community Services, which represents providers, led together. Families and providers do not always want the same things. Providers want rates. Families want hours and choice. When those two groups show up separately with different asks, a committee gets to pick one and call it a compromise. When they show up with the same ask, there is nothing to split.
The part I respect most: they did not declare victory
$300 million came back. About $157 million in reductions survived, including a cut to the geographic differential rate that pays central Maryland providers more, and a reduction to Low-Intensity Support Services from $5.5 million down to $2 million rather than the full elimination originally contemplated.
Ande Kolp of The Arc Maryland described it this way: these cuts are painful, but oh my gosh, they were going to be catastrophic. She also called it a big day representing unprecedented cooperation.
Both halves of that are true and saying both is a strategic choice. An advocate who calls a partial win a total victory has nothing to come back with next year. An advocate who calls it a total defeat teaches supporters that showing up does not work. Naming exactly what was won and exactly what was lost is how you keep a coalition intact for the next session, and there is always a next session.
What translates to Michigan and what does not
Some of this transfers cleanly. The budget calendar exists here too. The fiscal agency summaries are public and searchable. Public testimony is open to residents. Provider associations and family organizations exist and can coordinate. The three tactics above are portable.
Some of it does not transfer as cleanly, and I would rather say so than sell you a fantasy. Michigan’s system runs money through PIHPs and CMHSPs, which means the path from an appropriation to a service in your county has more hands on it than Maryland’s does. We have watched that happen with the direct care wage passthrough, where the money was appropriated and did not reliably arrive. Winning the appropriation is necessary here and it is not sufficient, and any Michigan playbook has to include a second phase that Maryland’s did not need.
Michigan’s session also runs on a different rhythm, with a fiscal year starting in October rather than a spring finish. Our ten weeks are not their ten weeks. Find ours.
The version of this you can run alone
Most families cannot organize a rally. Here is the individual-scale version, and it is not nothing.
Find out when the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees on health and human services meet. Read the fiscal agency summary and find the line item that touches your family. Sign up for three minutes of public testimony. Describe one person and one day, name the line item and the number, make one ask, say your county, and submit a written copy for the record.
Then send the same document to your own state representative and senator, and ask for a written response by a date you name.
That is maybe six hours of your life across a whole legislative cycle. Maryland’s $300 million was built out of a lot of people doing approximately that, at the same time, during the ten weeks when it counted. That is the entire playbook. The only hard part is the calendar, and the calendar is published.