New Strib columnist Gail Rosenblum looks at proposed cuts at the Legislature to the Personal Care Assistant (PCA) program. Advocates say the move will mean short-term savings for the cash-strapped state budget but also much higher costs down the road when those with disabilities and the elderly who use the PCAs are no longer able to live independently and work.

(Disclosure: Some of the people she interviewed are members of the Minnesota Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, which I work with reporting on legislative issues.)

Rosenblum talked with Bridget Siljander, a full-time advocate for the state's estimated 40,000 PCAs. She also has worked as a PCA for 12 years, earning an average of $10 an hour to help Minnesotans with a range of disabilities -- from spinal cord injuries to fetal alcohol syndrome -- in bathing, using the toilet, getting into a wheelchair, eating without choking, experiencing fresh air.

And Anne Henry, an attorney with the Minnesota Disability Law Center, calls the PCA a "safety-net program."

Any cases of fraud in the program -- as suggested in a recent legislative audit -- must be eliminated, Henry said, but not at the cost of the vulnerable people needing the services.

"There is absolutely no room for fraud. We want this program to be pristine. We support auditing and training and disenrollment for those who fraudulently bill. The Legislature heard fraud and they said 'Oh, good, something easy to cut.' It's so frustrating. Most people in this work want to do a good job," Henry said.

The Gawboys of Tower, Minn., who have 12 adopted children, ages 4 to 15, including two sibling groups, told Rosenblum that their challenges are mind-numbing: The kids have come with a legacy of sexual abuse, brain damage, autism, violent tantrums.

"We thought we had seen everything," said Becky Gawboy, 56, who with husband, Jim, 72, has taken in 90 foster kids over 10 years. With this adopted dozen, "we never went to the bathroom for two years without telling the other adult. These kids were so needy."

The PCAs help give the couple's children the chance to "have healthy relationships and function in society,'' Gawboy said.

But "if we can't heal the wounds of our 7-year-old son, for example, [who suffers from severe attachment disorder and violent tendencies], we'll be writing to him in prison," she said.