FY 13 Budget: Updates

Relevant Line Items •  Full budget here •  Mass Budget/Policy Center

Governor Deval Patrick today released his FY13 budget, which unfortunately under-funds some critical supports for families.

Family Support Services (DDS line item 5920-3000) has been reduced by $5.5 million. The impact of this cut is further exacerbated by the fact this program has already been cut by $10 million in 2010. There are 20,000 families currently served through this program. The cut proposed by the Governor today will impact 2,000 Massachusetts families.

Also of great concern is a $3 million shortfall for transportation (previously DDS line item 5911-2000). This line item has been bundled into the DDS Community Day & Employment Services line.

Aside from these larger cuts, there is some good news for the disability community. The governor's proposed budget:

• Maintains level funding for long term supports and services in MassHealth including day habilitation, adult family/foster care, adult day health and personal care attendant programs.

• Annualizes funding for day, employment & residential programs that support students who turned 22 last year.

• Fully funds the Rolland settlement that continues to bring people into community-based programs.

• Includes some funds for Chapter 257 implementation in community-based day and employment rates. We are still reviewing this breakdown to see if more funds will be necessary to adequate and fairly set those rates.

• Level-funded the MRC brain injury residential supports program (SHIP).

We are very disappointed at the failure of the Administration to fund a salary increase for human service workers. The human services sector, which never enjoyed plentiful revenues in good times, has suffered disproportionately in state funding since budget writers began cutting to the bone many years ago. This, despite many studies that show the human services industry is a major employer with nearly 200,000 employees who account for more than $100 million in tax revenue in the Commonwealth.

We place our trust and hope in the Legislature to address the absence of sufficient funding for Family Support and Respite Services for people with developmental disabilities. And we look to the Legislature to once again express its support for the dedicated human services workforce by funding a $28 million Salary Reserve.

While the news is not all bad, the continuation of any underfunding in the face of record state revenues leaves many in the disability community asking the Governor why the human services sector has not seen a fully restored budget this year. It looks as though we will need to fight during the next step of the budget process (House Ways and Means) to advocate for adequate funding for disability programs.

The Arc and ADDP will continue their joint efforts for this cause.