Services at Risk Again in FY 13 Budget

Disability advocates, hoping for one holiday season when they could be thankful for program and budget stability, received a jolt of harsh reality from the Patrick Administration the night before Thanksgiving with a surprise announcement by EOHHS Secretary JudyAnn Bigby.

Bigby set off alarm bells throughout the human services community when she announced, last week in a community wide email EOHHS programs should prepare to expect more program and budget cuts in the Administration's FY 2013 Budget Recommendation.  Bigby advised advocates: "FY13 will be challenging and require cuts and reductions".

Is the Massachusetts Economy Recovering or Slumping?

Bigby's announcement was jarring to many advocates, particularly in light of the Administration's public stance noting two years of continued economic growth that allowed the Administration, this past month, to allocate another $350 million to the rainy day fund bringing year's total fiscal 2011 stabilization fund deposit to $712 million.  Furthermore, Bigby's announcement seems to conflict with Governor Patrick's state and national stance, on behalf of the Obama Administration, boasting of his Administration's success in leading the Massachusetts economic recovery.

Other indications of strong economic standing by the Commonwealth this past year include the recent action by the Governor and Legislature to invest an unexpected $65 million in local aid to towns and cities in the recent FY 11 Supplemental Budget Bill, and the state's ability to give state employees, including state managers 3% salary increases.

Noting that the Commonwealth has cut hundreds of millions of dollars from human service programs since 2008, the Administration had been expected to leave remaining safety net programs intact and even restore some earlier devastating cuts that have left 10,000 people with developmental disabilities and their families without respite and family support services.

Will Governor Patrick Protect The Programs He Just Saved? What services are left to cut?

Four years of deep health and human service budgets have spared few if any programs from devastating cuts.

To the Administration's credit, throughout the Great Recession, Governor Deval Patrick has directed his Administration to spare existing 24/7 residential programs from the budget ax. As a result, cuts have been concentrated on programs with increasing demands, such as Turning 22 services, day services, employment programs, respite and family support programs (eliminating service for 10,000 families).  And contributing to the difficulty of keeping agencies fiscally strong, community programs have been unable to provide annual raises to direct support professionals for four years.  

In FY 11 Supplemental Budget just signed, the Governor's Office  wrote last week to families noting:
The Governor continued his strong commitment to protecting services for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families when he signed the recent Supplemental Budget which included a $10 million salary reserve for direct support professionals and restored $5.4 million for Family Support Services. He has also remained steadfast in his support of the Community First Initiative. While Massachusetts is experiencing many encouraging signs of economic recovery, we will continue to face difficult challenges in the new fiscal year. Please know that Governor Patrick and his budget team will be crafting a proposal that maximizes efficiencies and savings across state government while maintaining a firm commitment to our shared values.

ADDP and other advocates will be carefully monitoring the Governor's developing FY 13 budget to see if the programs and employees rescued by the Governor in October remain in the budget released in January 2012.