PHOENIX — Arizona is free to cut services to an estimated 30,000 residents with developmental disabilities, the state Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.

The ruling will mean that the DARC will have to cut a minimum of 10 percent next year.

In a unanimous decision, the judges concluded that nothing in state law bars the Department of Economic Security, facing an order by the Legislature to cut its budget, from reducing what it does. The three-judge panel specifically rejected arguments that those who have been getting help from the state are legally entitled to the services which have been specifically recommended for them.

The judges also concluded there was nothing illegal in the sate reducing what it pays to the organizations that actually provide the services to those with disabilities, funding cuts that challengers of the move said would affect those services.

Thursday’s ruling comes less than two months after a Maricopa County Superior Court judge blocked DES from cutting back services. Joseph Heilman said he had reached the “inescapable conclusion” that the haste with which DES acted in cutting its spending “has served to create nothing less than mass confusion, anxiety and uncertainty” among individuals who receive benefits from organizations that are paid to provide services.

And Heilman said DES acted to reduce services even though lawmakers did not relieve the agency of its legal responsibilities to provide care for those with mentalhealth problems.

Jennifer Nye, an attorney for the Arizona Center for Disability Law, said she was disappointed in the ruling.

“We know that thousands of adults and children with disability are going to be harmed by these cuts in services and rates,’’ she said. Nye also called it “very short-sighted on the part of the state to balance its budget on the backs of its most vulnerable population.’’

Lawmakers made $580 million in spending cuts in late January as

part of a plan to deal with a $1.6 billion budget deficit.

The DES share of that was close to $100 million. But the agency said its total cuts really amounted to more than $150 million, with cash taken from special accounts and the refusal of lawmakers to provide additional needed funds.

DES, in turn, cut payments to service providers by 10 percent. It also eliminated services for people who are moderately developmentally disabled who, with support, can work in the private sector and dropped funding for earlyintervention services for 2,000 children, from birth through age 3, who are at risk for developmental disability.

The appellate judges said lawmakers did nothing wrong in making a lump-sum cut to the DES budget and letting the agency decide what services to trim. They said legislators were faced with “a sobering assessment of plummeting revenues.’’