Georgia budget rules could leave thousands of special-needs residents without care
Written by GCDD on .
August 4, 2026 - (ANF) —
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — Flat-funding guidelines for future Georgia budgets have ignited a sharp debate at the state capitol as disability advocates warn that thousands of vulnerable Georgians will be left without care.
Advocates argued that the new budget directives lock in previous cuts to vital Medicaid waivers, keeping approximately 8,000 people stranded where they already are on the state’s waiting list.
According to D’Arcy Robb with the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities, more than 1,200 of those individuals are in urgent need of services.
“When they turn 22, we talk about the cliff, because it feels to our folks like a cliff. And we hear about the ‘couch kids,’” Robb said. “People literally sit at home all day on the couch.”
For families on the waiting list, the lack of support has turned daily life into a grueling waiting game.
Lerone, a 28-year-old Georgia resident who has Down syndrome, relocated from New York after his mother passed away.
His 74-year-old aunt and caregiver, Nina Howard, took him in, but said her 18-month struggle to secure a state Medicaid waiver has taken a severe toll.
“It’s affected my mental health,” Howard said. “I wake up in the middle of the night, between two and four, saying, ‘What is today going to bring?’”
Without the waiver, Lerone is unable to access professional care or community programs, spending his days sketching the friends he left behind. Howard added that she is terrified of who will protect Lerone when she is no longer able to care for him.
“I just hope that tomorrow will be brighter,” Howard said. “Not just for me, and for him, but all the other families.”
Carter Chapman, press secretary for Gov. Brian Kemp, pushed back on the term “spending freeze,” stating the instructions simply direct agencies to abstain from requesting new discretionary spending to maintain a constitutionally balanced budget.
Chapman noted that the guidance does not block funding requests for mandatory workload needs, which historically includes additional NOW and COMP waivers.
Under Gov. Kemp, the state has increased the number of waivers by 1,688 slots through an $81 million investment, according to the governor’s office.
The governor’s office stated that the primary obstacle is a shortage of service providers to fill existing slots, which prompted the state to invest an additional $124 million to raise provider reimbursement rates.
Camille Taylor, spokesperson for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, said the department will submit budget information that complies with the instructions, though it is too early to comment on what will be included in the September submission.
“Under Governor Kemp’s leadership, DBHDD has received historic investments to strengthen Georgia’s behavioral health system, and the department will continue carrying out its mission while responsibly managing those resources,” Taylor said.
State agencies are currently preparing their budget submissions for the upcoming fiscal year to comply with the Governor’s flat-funding guidelines. Disability advocates plan to continue pushing state leaders to fund additional waiver slots before final budget hearings begin.