Budget storm hits nonprofits

Lack of information, funding leaving some in limbo

Social service providers are hoping for the best, but expecting a worse-case scenario for their clients as the new fiscal year hits them in their pocketbooks, and Connecticut lacks a new budget.

Nonprofits throughout the state have been told to plan for budget cuts of 10-percent or more.

At least six once-a-month furlough days, with no state support for developmentally disabled programs, are planned starting July 26.

Eileen Healy, executive director of Independence Northwest, a Naugatuck-based advocacy program for the disabled, said Monday she’s not sure what her nonprofit may have collected in the quarter that started Saturday.

“We don’t even know whether we’ll get anything in the budget,” she said, noting that she made do last year with $250,000 in state support — less than half of what they requested — for 1,500 consumers of all types of disabilities, with additional programs in West Haven, Stratford, Hartford and Norwich.

“It’s going to be tight. By the time we pay salaries and contribute to three funding streams subsidizing rent, it’ll go quick,” she said.

Healy estimates that the Independence programs that help the disabled transition from

nursing homes back into their communities save the state about $11 million a year.

For many providers such as Anthony Corso, program director for New Haven-based Dana’s House, a halfway house for inmates with mental health and substance-abuse issues, it’s like 2009 all over again, when the General Assembly and then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell could not agree on a new budget until the end of August, nearly two months after the start of the fiscal year.

So he’s already talking with banks about lines of credit to keep the 15-bed residential center afloat through the summer.

“We’re in limbo because our funding is through the Department of Correction and we haven’t heard on how to handle this on a monthly basis,” said Corso, whose program is associated with the Bridgeportbased Family ReEntry Inc., which also has a Norwalk program. “We’re assuming we won’t get paid until there is a budget. We haven’t received word to shut programs down.”

Transitioning inmates back into the community and reducing prison populations are key parts of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s “Second Chance Society” legislation of recent years, including this year’s elimination of cash bail for non-violent crimes. But last week, when House Democrats balked at voting on a so-called minibudget, Malloy signed a bare-bones executive order to keep government functioning without raising revenue in the new fiscal year.

If the budget stalemate were to continue into the fall, social service cuts could exceed 15 percent or more, according to the Department of Developmental Services.

Costello said his program helps 60 inmates a year to transition away from prison, take their medications and participate in follow-up programs. Connecticut is one of at least nine states, including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Jersey and Delaware that had not passed budgets as of the holiday weekend. New Jersey and Maine reached budget deals Monday and Tuesday, respectively, according to multiple news reports.

“There are devastating funding cuts to community-based providers,” said Gian-Carl Casa, president and CEO of the Connecticut Community Nonprofit Alliance. “We continue to believe that budget solutions should be long term, and include conversion of state services to the community, where $300 million can be saved over the next five years and used to prevent damaging cuts.”

Casa said that state agencies have been communicating with organizations, but are only just assessing the potential sweeping impacts.

“Thousands of people are going to be affected,” Casa said. “Many of these providers are going to tap into their savings and others are going to close.”

He and members of the alliance have spoken with lawmakers, but he suggested that constituents speak directly with their district House members and senators. Last week, when House majority Democrats said they would not accept the governor’s mini-budget, they instead offered a new twoyear budget that they expect to vote on July 18.