Testimony: ‘My son will lose all services’

Deborah Cunningham said her son Matthew wasn’t expected to live after he was born 5 weeks early, but he did. “My son has been a success story,” she said. He went to kindergarten, grade school, junior high and high school. “Yes, he had a one-on-one aide,” she said. Now 20, she said, he receives developmental therapy that helps him function independently, but when he lived at home with her, he backslid. “I am not a provider. I do not know how to teach my son the skills that he needs to succeed,” Cunningham said. “As of July 1, if you pass this bill, my son will lose all services and he’s no longer going to be that success story. His story is going to be rewritten, and he’s going to be home, he’s going to backslide again.” She said Matthew wants to live on his own and have a job. “He wants to become someone that he can be proud of, just like I am proud of him.”

Shawna Springer of Lewiston, a service provider, told lawmakers that if HB 221 passes, “Clients will lose their services, staff will lose their jobs.”

Dennis Smith of the Joshua D. Smith Foundation said, “If this bill goes through, 71 of our clients will be without services. … I’ll have to lay off a minimum of 35 employees. Several of those employees have been with me for 25 years.”