BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Health care topped the list of requests from people who asked senators to include their needs in Louisiana's $24 billion budget for next year.

With money tight and cuts on the horizon, the wants far outweigh the dollars available as the Senate Finance Committee held public testimony Saturday, the day when the general public can lodge its budget requests.

Parents seeking to expand home- and community-based care for their disabled children packed the committee room, seeking $14 million in increased state financing to give assistance to people who wait years for services.

Others sought to hang onto the health care money that lawmakers in the House added for assistive technology for disabled people and for a network of community health care clinics in the New Orleans area.

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