Conn. Families Fight Proposed Cuts

Keep up the good fight Nutmeggers.

HARTFORD — The signs of influence were there: About 30 legislators showed up at a rallying point Wednesday as dozens of parents of children with intellectual disabilities prepared to fan out through the Capitol complex and press lawmakers to resist $47 million in proposed cuts to services.The consensus in the crowded meeting room Wednesday was that parents, schooled by advocates to become their own champions, have in recent years fully conveyed what they see as an unjust system that favors expensive, outmoded state institutions serving a fraction of the population.

Ted Kennedy Jr. Marks NDEAM; Criticizes Connecticut Budget Cuts

BLOOMFIELD, Conn. – State Sen. Ted Kennedy Jr. visited Cigna headquarters Thursday to celebrate the company's commitment to hiring people with disabilities.The Democrat from Branford also denounced the recent round of emergency cuts to the state budget ordered by Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy — including services that help people with disabilities stay in the workforce."These are the very programs that people with disabilities rely on to get training so they can seek active employment," Kennedy said. "To me, this is a misguided type of way to balance the state budget.''

Advocates Attack Malloy Budget Cuts

HARTFORD — Groups advocating on behalf of Connecticut's developmentally disabled adults and children took to the Capitol to criticize Gov. Dannel Malloy's rescissions from more than ten days ago. One Democrat in the Connecticut House even took the governor's administration to task and backed GOP calls for a Special Session to address funding deficiencies.More than $7 million of the cuts were aimed at the Department of Developmental Services that handles adult home and day services for adults living with mental struggles.

Opinion: Connecticut Budget Cuts Reflect 'New Level of Inhumanity'

Powerful Op-Ed piece in The Hartford Courant by Stanley and the Rev. Kathleen Peters, parents of an adult child with ID/DD.

Enough is enough. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the Office of Policy and Management Secretary Benjamin Barnes have shown a whole new level of inhumanity with their continued cuts to the Department of Developmental Services budget. As two of the thousands of parents of an adult child with an intellectual/developmental disability, who has been on the department's waiting lists for residential funding, we are sickened by the Malloy administration's indifference to our children and all the children affected by the budget cuts.

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities are among the most vulnerable members of our society and the least able to personally advocate for themselves. We can only think that it is because of their vulnerability that the governor and the secretary of policy and management feel that they are an easy target to take the brunt of cuts to balance the state budget.