The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Advocating for more funds
My name is Colby Van Voorhis, and I am one of eight adopted children from Madison County. Myself and members of my family have various Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD). The proposed State Executive Budget cuts impacting the I/DD community are of great concern.
In this Executive Budget, a 5% budget cut will be imposed on the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities. This is in addition to the recent 20% withholding of state dollars and $238 million in cuts to residential rates that resulted in the loss of 1,200 beds in group homes. What’s frightening is that this proposed cut is being done as an “administrative action,” which makes it hidden from the public in the NYS budget, providing zero transparency.
Due to this proposed budget plan, the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) has announced that another round of significant budgetary cuts will impact the seven Care Coordination Organization/health Homes (CCO/HHS), created in 2018, that currently provide over 110,000 and their families the quality health care and long-term support they need. This new 23% cut is in addition to the 16.2% CCO/HH cut that went into effect last year. If this is approved, a total of $166 million (39%) would be taken from the CCO/HH budgets in just the past 12 months, leaving individuals with I/DD at high risk.
New York Disability advocates estimate that organizations supporting people with I/ DD have lost $2.6 billion over the past 10 years due to funding cuts. New York State Assemblymember Thomas Abinanti once stated, “We have gone from benign neglect to active abandonment and, in some cases, actual attacks because of the cuts that have been forced upon us by the governor.” He is
absolutely correct.
In this budget, NYS Medicaid populations (excluding people with I/DD) will continue to be fully funded. This obvious discrimination against people with I/DDS is truly unacceptable and is a catastrophic portrayal of human-rights abuse. These budget cuts have raised fears throughout the I/DD community of a return to the era of the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, where dismal conditions led to widespread abuse, neglect, disease, and inhumane medical experimentation.
Now, budget cuts attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic would be understandable if it were a one-time event, but it’s not! It happens year-in and year-out, to the point where you’re asking yourself, “What are they going to cut now?”.
The I/DD community has been overlooked during this health crisis. I/DD organizations and agencies have been hit drastically, being left on their own to provide PPE and hazard pay for care-staff. New York State has received well over $64B in COVID-19 aid, with none of it going to agencies that care for people with I/DD.
I’m asking you to listen to and advocate for your fellow neighbor because it is time we “normalize” people with disabilities and stop seeing them as people who don’t have a voice. Many may not be able to advocate for themselves, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be heard.
So please stand with the I/DD community, reach out to your local representatives, and tell them to vote against the Governor’s proposed cuts that leaving people with I/DD at a major disadvantage. These cuts are not just taking away from agencies and organizations, they’re taking essential services away from real people, like my family and me.
If these cuts were made to any other underrepresented group, there would be general outrage by the public advocating on their behalf. My question is, where is our representation?
Make us a priority for once.