Transferred to Virginia from New Mexico because of her job, Loli McMahon found to her surprise that her new home state didn't provide financial assistance for her autistic son, Michéal.

"We did not know that moving here would have a detrimental impact on his health and our finances," McMahon said at the final public hearing on Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's proposed $78 billion budget for 2008-2010.

She was one of scores of mental-health advocates who packed a hearing room in the General Assembly Building to ask for more money -- technically, they're requesting waivers -- to care for their disabled loved ones.

The tales of woe, washed with tears and heartrending stories, went on for hours before a joint hearing of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees, both of which will write their own versions of the budget before fashioning a compromise, portions of which Kaine can revise or veto.

In a separate development, Kaine told the money committees in a hand-delivered letter that revenue for December -- when Christmas can drive up sales-tax revenues -- grew 1.8 percent, slightly behind his forecast. It was another sign of the sluggish economy that is triggering belt-tightening across state government.

Advocates annually show up in force to make their cases, but this year, mental-health proponents are particularly outspoken -- largely in response to the Virginia Tech massacre that spotlighted gaps in the mental-health system.

"It's said that three things make Virginia respond," said former Secretary Health and Human Services Howard Cullum, the father of a mentally disabled boy, Keith, and president of the state wing of the Association for Retarded Citizens.

"First, the federal government makes us. Second, litigation or the threat of litigation, and third, tragedy or significant crisis -- that's what you're seeing here."

Testimony -- at yesterday's hearing and others around the state more than a week ago -- is coupled with grass-roots efforts by advocates for an array of interests. This includes face-to-face contacts with legislators in Richmond and their districts.

Del. M. Kirkland Cox, R-Colonial Heights, a member of the appropriations committee and an ally of the mental-health lobby, said the hearings can have a powerful impact on budget deliberations.

"For a lot of us, it's put a real face on the issue," said Cox. "When you dominate the hearings like this -- when you have this kind of turnout -- it's worth it."

Another newcomer to Virginia, Jeanette McCabe, who received assistance in Ohio and New York but not here, said her brother, John, "has been condemned to a life of isolation because we moved to Virginia."

Then John spoke:

"I, John, want a job."

Cox and Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, have proposed a $65 million amendment to the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse, to pay for an additional 725 new assistance grants in each year of the next two-year spending cycle.

Currently the state offers assistance to about 7,500 families. Kaine's budget would add another 75 slots per year.

But more than 3,900 people with "intellectual disabilities" -- the term advocates prefer to "mental retardation" -- are on the waiting list for community-based services, officials said. Of those, 1,908 are classified as being on the urgent care wait list.

Mental-health groups also are proposing legislation to change the term, mental retardation, to intellectual disability.

In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, in which a gunman killed 32 students and faculty members and himself, Kaine has proposed $42 million in additional spending to hire more clinicians and therapists, provide more community-health services and to support more emergency mental-health services.

Advocates say this is a good start, but more money is needed. Kaine says the new money will pay for all the new employees that can be hired.

"After the horror of Virginia Tech, the eyes of the world are on you," John Malbon, who has three autistic children, said.

Paul Florenz of Chesterfield County, whose son Jonathan is autistic, said "a future with no hope is a very, very dangerous situation. . . . Make Virginia a place that is known and respected for taking care of its sick."
Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or twhitley@timesdispatch.com.

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or jschapiro@timesdispatch.com.