Worries Persist Over Cuts to Social Services

With the announcement of more $50 million in state agency budget cuts, advocates for at-risk populations say some of the cuts to the social safety net are ambiguous.

“There’s not a lot of detail but there is a lot of money that would be in our bailiwick in terms of services" said Morna Murray, CEO of the Connecticut Community Providers Association.

Of the more than $54 million in cuts, roughly $11 million affects youth, mental health, and community services.

Murray also pointed out that the timing of the cuts coincided with a new report out that detailed the mental health and education background of Adam Lanza, the murderer in the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012.

"We know how critical these services are," Murray said.

More than $9 million was cut from the Department of Children and Families alone, according to the list of rescissions released by the state Thursday.

Democrats and Republicans, who heard from the Office of Fiscal Analysis and the Office of Policy and Management on the state's budget woes, voiced concerns about cuts to programs that provide critical public programs.

“No cuts to human services are pleasant cuts, and I have been genuinely concerned about the mental health system for adolescents and about people with developmental disabilities, so we’re asking questions here and behind the scenes to make sure that we provide the care that people need,” said Democratic State Sen. Beth Bye, of West Hartford, who chairs the Appropriations Committee said.

“Our goal and our priority is to make sure core populations are taken care of with the things they need but at this point in time we just have to sit down and figure out where cuts can be made," said Republican State Rep. Themis Klarides, of Derby, who was recently elected by the GOP caucus as the Minority Leader-elect. "You know maybe those cuts could have been made somewhere else that didn’t affect certain populations.”

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