Facing a deadline of midnight tonight to adjourn, legislative leaders have yet to agree on a budget. Governor Beshear told Kentucky lawmakers to “get their egos under control” and produce a budget by midnight as Kentuckians expect. Currently, the new budget has no funding for the Kentucky AIDS Drug Assistance Program, but an effort led by Kentucky Equality Federation effectively killed House Bill 350, a bill that would have dismantled the education and prevention efforts performed by the Kentucky HIV/AIDS Branch, a unit of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

Budget negotiations in Frankfort collapsed Wednesday amid enormous differences over a sliver of the spending plan that would create a spate of state-backed construction projects while adding to the Commonwealth’s debt. Organizations across the Commonwealth have expressed alarm and dismay that the budget will be passed that does not include funding for the Kentucky AIDS Drug Assistance Program (KADAP).

In a proposed commonwealth budget that allocates over $3.4 billion for road projects, a small request of $3.5 million to fund the Kentucky AIDS Drug Assistance Program (KADAP) has been ignored, leaving hundreds living with HIV/AIDS facing difficult choices. The nearly 1300 patients enrolled in KADAP, which is currently unfunded, receive medications through a hodge-podge of resources that are temporary and unsustainable. In the meantime, Kentucky has the longest waiting list in the nation for drug assistance—numbering over 160 men and women—with more being added every day.

In a series of condemnations and action alerts to raise public awareness of bad legislation, Kentucky Equality Federation, now joined by the Kentucky HIV/AIDS Advocacy Action Group condemned House Bill 350. With Kentucky’s economy in ruins, additional human services are expected to be cut by lawmakers before the end of the 2010 legislative session.