R.I. Budget Approved with Cuts to Developmental Disability Funding

PROVIDENCE, R.I. –– A $7.7-billion state budget for the year that begins Friday cleared the General Assembly on a hectic day at the State House, and now heads to Governor Chafee for his signature.

The tax-and-spending plan, approved on a 30-to-7 vote of the state Senate on Wednesday, was part of a packed agenda for lawmakers, who are pushing to bring the 2011 legislative session to a close by the end of the week, in time for the July 4 holiday.

Representatives and senators faced potential votes on more than 100 bills, including a number of controversial proposals that have been hotly debated all session.

The Senate passed legislation, already passed by the House, creating civil unions for gay couples in Rhode Island, and sent that to the governor. A key House committee took up legislation, already approved by the Senate, that would determine who controls the disposition of more than 40 prime acres of Providence real estate opened by the relocation of Route 195.

Meanwhile, opponents of binding arbitration flocked to the State House to pack hearing rooms in an effort to dissuade lawmakers from passing bills that, they claimed, will bring Rhode Island’s already financially struggling cities and towns to their knees.

“It makes no sense during the final 48 hours of this legislative session to rush this through,” complained Daniel L. Beardsley, executive director of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns.

Senate budget approval followed more than one hour of debate in which a number of proposals to significantly alter the spending plan were resoundingly rejected leaving the House-approved plan unchanged.

Senate Republicans, by far the minority in the chamber, launched failed bids to repeal the $500 corporate-minimum tax and to introduce changes to state worker pensions.

Sen. John J. Tassoni, Jr., D-Smithfield, a former top-ranking labor union official, wanted to strike down language eliminating new longevity pay increases for state workers, a controversial part of the budget that unions say violates their collective bargaining rights.

And Sen. Harold M. Metts, D-Providence, failed in his attempt to add funding to human-service programs dealing with housing, subsidized health insurance for low-income families, and programs for the developmentally disabled.

“I agonized over the cuts to the most vulnerable in our society,” said Metts, whose district covers South Providence. “Why are we helping AIG and Bank of America, but we can’t help the poor? I can’t understand it.”

Special Needs Schools Suffer Funding Cut

A piece from the Guardian shows that across the pond, government funding for special needs programs is just as big a problem.

LONDON -- More than 20 schools for children with special needs have suffered a £1m cut in government funding, which will lead to cutbacks in provision, affecting services such as translating books into braille and helping children with disruptive behaviour.

The cut affects private special schools that received money for programmes involving children at state schools.

The schools affected have suffered individual cuts ranging from £45,000 to £145,000. They include the West of England school and college in Exeter, which caters for pupils with visual impairment, and St Vincent's school in Liverpool, a specialist school for children with sensory impairment.

Claire Dorer, chief executive of the National Association of Independent Schools and Non-Maintained Special Schools (NASS), said that in terms of overall education funding, the £1m cut was a "drop in the ocean" for the Department of Education.

The cut follows a government decision to integrate cash for special schools into the mainstream school funding grant.

Services for People with Disabilities Face Cuts

Services for people with disabilities continue to face cuts in government aid.


HOUMA, La. — Local programs aimed at helping people with disabilities could suffer budget cuts this month.

The cuts are among proposed changes to the state Department of Health and Hospitals’ budget under consideration by the Louisiana Legislature.

Terrebonne and Lafourche ARC programs, which serve people with mental and physical handicaps, could see up to 7.4 percent cut to state Medicaid payments.

That would mean a $237,000 loss for TARC, which serves more than 300 people in Terrebonne, and $938,000 cut to Lafourche ARC’s budget, which serves more than 400 in a seven-parish area that includes Terrebonne and Lafourche.

“You can’t take that kind of money out of your budget and expect to not run some deficits,” said Lester Adams, Lafourche ARC’s executive director.