Lamont eyes social services privatization debate

Gov.-elect Ned Lamont’s transition team got a preview Monday of a tugof-war the new governor will have to referee for the next four years.

Advocates for public- and privatesector social services workers offered competing recommendations on how to finance and deliver state-sponsored human services amid lean budget conditions.

During a presentation at the state Veterans’ Home and Hospital in Rocky Hill, the leader of one of the largest, private, nonprofit agencies in Connecticut called for redeploying resources to the private sector in the coming years as state workers retire.

Less than 30 minutes later, an official with Connecticut’s largest health care workers’ union said it was important to preserve a broad spectrum of care across all sectors, though the state could seek to reduce duplicate administration costs among the hundreds of private, nonprofit providers. Lamont’s transition team received the first of three days of briefings Monday from working groups studying a myriad of policy issues. The proposals of these groups — comprised of volunteers from business, labor, academic health care and government settings — will be reviewed by the new governor’s team for possible inclusion in the administration’s agenda.

“Connecticut can build a worldclass human services system with high-quality, individualized supports ... if the administration empowers change, which we certainly want to be a participant in,” said Barry Simon, CEO at Hartfordbased Oak Hill School, one of the largest nonprofit agencies serving clients with physical and intellectual disabilities.

Connecticut can “unleash the next wave of innovation that will strengthen communities,” if it takes advantage of a predicted surge of state employee retirements in 2021 and 2022, and if it redeploys resources to the private,

nonprofit sector, Simon said.

“Connecticut can no longer afford to do business as usual,” he said.

But labor leaders often counter that human services is not a one-size-fitsall endeavor and the state often must treat individuals with the most challenging conditions or problems — simply because no one else will.

Deborah Schwartz, vice president and home care director for SEIU Healthcare 1199NE (known for many years as New England Healthcare Employees Union District 1199) said Connecticut needs to focus on greater investment in health care — across the board.

The union represents workers in the public and private sectors, she said, and “cuts to the public sector further increases fragmentation” of a health care system that already has undergone significant cutbacks.

Schwartz said the Lamont administration could improve care for the disabled and others by imposing better training standards and worker pay. She said some social service workers qualify for welfare, food stamps, heating assistance and other government-sponsored benefits because their pay is so poor — a reference to the private, nonprofits’ social workers, who generally earn much less than their state-employed counterparts.