Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed said she is pushing for restoring funds to programs for the developmentally disabled in this year’s budget.
“From an overall policy perspective we believe decisions in last year’s budget resulted in a negative impact on the community,” she said. “The senate has consistently made restoration of funding for the developmentally disabled a priority.”
Last year, funding for the developmentally disabled were cut by $24 million. Only about $12 million was cut from the state budget; the other half comes in federal matching funds.
Paiva Weed said Senate Finance Committee Chair Daniel DaPonte and House Finance Committee Chair Helio Melo, both East Providence Democrats, are working together to see how much of the approximately $12 million in local cuts can be restored.
“At this point finance chairs have been negotiating,” she said. “Hopefully they will resolve it all soon.”
During the last week or so, the finance committee chairs, among others, have been busy putting together the budget proposal behind closed doors. When I caught Melo opening the door of his office (after his secretary told me he wasn’t in there) he was tight-lipped about what might be in the much-anticipated proposal. “We are looking at it,” he said. “We are looking at everything.”
As a result of the cuts last year, programs were scaled back, even though they weren’t supposed to be, and several hundred low-income wage earners had their hours cut.
House Finance Committee member Rep. Larry Valencia, a progressive Democrat from Richmond, said, “It’s important to see what we can do about reversing the cuts from last year,” he said, noting that pay cuts to low-wage employees has a significant effect on the state’s economy.
Sen. Lou DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat who is the deputy chair of both the finance committee and the human services committee, is also pushing for funds to be reinstated.
“We need to see how to move needle from where it was last year,” he said. “The cuts last year went much too far.”
Advocates for what’s known as DD funding were successful this session at drawing attention to the cuts. The biggest crowd at the State House this session was for a rally to raise awareness to the cuts – it drew close to a 1,000 people I would estimate. And several labor unions affected by the wage cuts either staged one-day strikes earlier in the session.
When state money is budgeted for the developmentally disabled where does it go? It goes to employ caregivers who spend their wages in the local economy. It goes to provide preventive health care that keeps people out of emergency rooms, hospitals, nursing homes. It goes to relief to family caregivers so that the financial burden doesn’t ruin them. It goes to support institutions that make this a more inclusive and kind society– benefiting all of us.
It’s important to spend the money wisely, but when done right this kind of social spending has a ripple effect that benefits more than just the individuals who receive it.
Nancy – Look up “broken window fallacy.” I’m neither arguing for or against spending more on the disabled in this comment, but you have to realize that the ripple effect is true for costs as well as benefits. That money came from somewhere and it would have been used for other things that would have had ripple effects as well. I see this poor economic logic used by progressives again and again to justify higher and higher spending on a wide variety of public causes. It’s not sound economics.
I know you mentioned you do not have a position on spending for the disabled so I hope you will be open to hearing from a parent of a young man with significant developmental disabilities. The support services he receives are absolutely essential for his safety and well-being. My husband and I cannot support him without the help that his services provide. We love our son dearly and have devoted our lives to him, but he needs more than we can provide alone. Moreover, we worry about what will happen to him when we are no longer able to provide any support or pass on. I don’t know if you can imagine what it is to worry about leaving a son or daughter behind who people in our society have determined to be a drag on the economy. These are vulnerable people’s lives we are talking about. The cuts that were made last year were too drastic and if not addressed will cause the collapse of the service system that is in place with nothing to replace it. The agencies providing services cannot provide them with the money they are being given. If we are going to talk about economics, that is an economic reality. If the service system falls apart, many peoples lives will be in great jeopardy.
I ask that you really look and learn about the issues and come to understand that the cuts to services for the disabled were too drastic. We need people in our society to be behind the need for provision of services to a very vulnerable population. My son is a wonderful person with many challenges. He needs support to survive and then thrive – making contributions back to his community via his volunteer work and the light he shares with his presence. He has many gifts to offer to people who are open to them.