CUMBERLAND — Applause and cheers filled the Human Resources Development Commission building in Cumberland on Thursday night as Bill Brotemarkle, president of self-advocacy group People First, rallied the disabled community against proposed state budget cuts.

Two rounds of budget cuts have been adopted this year, one in July and one in October. Both have included decreased funding to community services programs totaling more than $20 million. Other programs facing cuts have included family support services, service coordination and adult respite services.

People First, a self-advocacy group for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, hosted a town hall meeting at the new HRDC building on Virginia Avenue. Attendees included Delegates Kevin Kelly and Wendell Beitzel and Sen. George Edwards.

“It is terrible to institutionalize people when they can stay in their own homes,” said Kelly.

“We have an executive budget, which means the governor puts the budget together and all we can do is cut it,” said Edwards. “We can't add money, we can't transfer money.” Edwards encouraged attendees to contact the Maryland Board of Public Works, which is composed of the governor, treasurer and comptroller.

Edwards said that Maryland has already implemented $400 million of cuts to reduce its $700 million deficit. Further cuts totalling $350 million are expected to be announced Wednesday.

Several disabled people spoke during the meeting in addition to Brotemarkle.

“Governor (Martin) O'Malley stated the Baltimore Zoo wouldn't be hit by these cuts,” said Bob Naughton, who has cerebral palsy. “So is a monkey's life more important than mine?”

A central point during the evening's discussion was the idea that institutionalizing disabled people is more expensive to the state than providing aides and at-home care.

Laura Howell, executive director with the Maryland Association of Community Services, said that according to the state budget, the average annual cost for a resident at the Brandenburg state residential center is more than $275,000. In comparison, the average annual cost for a resident in the community is around $70,000 to $140,000.

“A lot of times, people say folks who live in residential centers have more intensive needs,” said Howell. “We don't find that to be true. Folks who live in residential centers are the same folks with the same issues who live in the community.”

One of the ways People First suggested to avoid further cuts is a 5-cent per drink increase in the alcohol tax. Senate Bill 729, a previous attempt to increase the tax in order to raise funds for people with developmental disabilities in this year's General Assembly session, failed to get out of committee.

“It’s going to be a tough year for any taxes,” said Edwards on Friday. “There’s not a whole lot of mood in the General Assembly to raise taxes.”

Edwards added that even if such a tax did go through, it would be difficult to designate a use for the resulting funds. “(You’d be) robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Edwards. “Say you raised $100,000 ... they’d say it’s designated for that, (so) that’s all they’re putting in there. (They might also) just take $100,000 out of there and put it somewhere else, so you're just right where you were.”

Edwards believes that a better option would be to convince the governor to put more funding into programs for the disabled. “The governor sets the priorities ... if this was the governor's priority he'd move it up the list and put more funding into it,” said Edwards, who also suggested that reducing spending would free up funds for these and other programs.

Contact Cory Galliher at cgalliher@times-news.com.