Critics Turn to Academics To Do Cost-Benefit Analysis of OPWDD Services

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  -- Faced with a $90 million cut to the state Office of People With Developmental Disabilities, Staten Island advocates for the disabled have been highly critical of the borough's Albany lawmakers for not doing enough to prevent what amounts to a 4.5 percent reduction in aid. 

Donna Long and Laura Kennedy
are among those critical to the cuts.

But now Assemblyman Michael Cusick and one of the sharpest critics of the cuts to OPWDD, parent and activist Laura Kennedy -- who branded the reductions "cruel and shameful" -- told the Advance Thursday they've come up with a "plan of action" going forward.