We had expressed the hope that the Legislature would reduce the $11.4 million cut in the facilities line item in order to ensure that staffing and conditions at Fernald are at least minimally adequate for residents whose guardians are exercising their transfer appeal rights as of July 1. Instead, House Ways and Means increased that cut to $11.6 million.
We were never under the illusion that anyone in the legislative leadership was anything other than in bed with the administration on this issue. The Legislature has followed the governor with almost total obedience in his single-minded campaign to close the Fernald Center and three of the five other remaining facilities for the developmentally disabled, and ultimately privatize their services.
But this proposed $11.6 million cut is unconscionable because it may well take away the legal rights of the guardians of the remaining residents at Fernald. Under state law, those guardians have the right to appeal evictions of their wards from their current residence, and the state may not move them pending those appeals.
However, the law and accompanying regulations state that in the event of an emergency involving a “serious or immediate theat” to health or safety, those appeal rights vanish, and the residents can be moved immediately.
We've pointed out that conditions at Fernald have deteriorated steadily in the past year as the administration has laid off staff and failed to reassign remaining staff in an efficient or effective way. The only reason that a safety emergency has not yet been declared at Fernald is apparently that beds don't yet exist elsewhere to accomodate all 93 of the remaining Fernald residents.
But the administration has been working “around the clock” to renovate two buildings at the Wrentham Developmental Center that will accomodate as many as 64 of those residents. Once the beds are ready by the end of June, as planned, the stage may well be set for the “emergency” that will close Fernald once and for all.
So, has the Ways and Means Committee at least proposed more funding for care in the community-based system, where most of the facility residents will ultimately end up? Hardly. The committee has done only a little better than the governor in this regard, proposing an $18.4 million increase in community-based line items over current-year spending, compared with a $2.7 million increase proposed by the governor.
But even that $18.4 million increase is less than 2 percent of the total community-based spending this year. It's hardly enough to alleviate the growing strain on the community system as more and more of the state system is closed and privatized.
Take the community transportation line item. With the closure of Fernald, there will be an increased need to transport many of the former facility residents to decentralized, community-based programs. Yet the House Ways and Means budget fails to restore an 11 percent cut in the transportation line item that the governor imposed under his 9C powers this year.
Shall we use the logic in Swift’s Modest Proposal and prevent the disabled from being a burden by using them to make sausage for the rest of us?
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p>There does not seem to be sufficient human kindness or empathy to enable them to live, after all.
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p>Maybe it requires a new federal law suit, like the children in foster care that I keep posting about, that suit was filed just yesterday.
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p>Why file federal? Because the SJC in Massachusetts will not, dare not, has not touched anything that would effect the general fund since “clean elections”, see Hancock where even after this 300 page report by Judge Botsford, nothing happened at all after filing suit that went to the SJC.
First, a judge is a politician in robes. It is the judges’ political stance that determines the ruling in cases that are not “slam dunks” for either side.
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p>For decades, the appointed or elected judges, coast to coast and border to border, have gotten more and more conservative.
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p>The right is winning the fight for the judiciary because they “game the refs.”
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p>This means they go on and on about how left wing the judges are. They also say that the judges are “activists” who “make law” instead of “interpreting it”.
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p>The left doesn’t say how conservative the judges really are, and how they let the legislatures take away freedom for individuals to appeal to the “Hang Em High” crowd, and for other political purposes.
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p>These judges are responding to pressures to not be “activist” that is provided by these talking heads.
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p>AmberPaw is right. The way to go is to use the federal courts to make them get it right now.
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p>With all of these cases of disabled people neglected by the state, there are 2 moves that are a tall order, but could make doing the right thing easier, more permanent, and could have general economic benefits, too.
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p>The first step is to amend the Massachusetts Constitution to allow the state to deficit spend. This would take petition gathering, and 2 years in the state legislature (called the Great and General Court).
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p>The second step is to amend the US constitution to mandate that no state may outlaw deficit spending by the state government. It may be very hard to do this, but you could appeal to the greed of state governments for $$$$$$.
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p>If either of those measures pass, it would allow the state to deficit spend to take care of disabled people like this, AND to spend more money to create jobs during a severe recession like this.
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p>This would mean 50 states AND the federal government providing Keynesian stimulus together in a severe recession. Today, states are raising taxes and cutting services to balance the budget, which is making the recession much worse than it has to be.
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p>All states except Vermont are legally required to balance their budget.
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p>It is time to stop balancing the budget on the backs of the needy and most vulnerable.
This is unbelievable (maybe not). This Governor and the legislature should be ashamed of themselves. Stupid statement, you can’t shame people who have no shame.
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p>I’ve lost track of how many of our elected officials are under investigation/indictment for anything from corruption, accepting bribes, sexual assault right down to stealing money from the copiers. We foolishly expect this group, who are too busy trying to protect their phonie bolonie jobs or get out while the getting is good and take as much money as they can from the pension system before its changed, or trying to keep their behinds out of jail long enough to get re-elected to do the right thing! (I can only think of one of these officials who is doing time–what about the rest?)
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p>The administration has no problem coming up with $35 million for the city of Lawrence. As I understand it the state already pays 100% of the school budget and 75% of the city operating budget. After all the mayor did need new drapes and flooring.
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p>It has no problem coming up with $$$$ to hire six figure hacks for “critical” jobs that have been vacant for years. Employing entire families in one agency. Pays out six figures to employees of various agencies under some crazy rule that allows payment of unused sick time. Coming up with thousands to entice Fernald employees to retire or leave.
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p>Has no problem coming up with the $$$$ to pay the legal tab for one of these elected officials accused of accepting bribes. Not a public defender but the accused private attorney.
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p>It find no problem with the fact that the heads of the service providers in the community system have salaries exceeding $500,000 (being paid by the taxpayers). I don’t think their salaries will suffer as a result of the reduced funding.
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p>Its about to pay a Lawrence school official who has been on paid administration leave since last June and recently was indicted for stealing, $77K in accrued sick and vacation time because his contract stipulates it. I guess stealing taxpayer money doesn’t breach that contract.
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p>INSTANTLY found the money to make sure ZOO ANIMALS were not harmed. I could go on and on but I will stop because it is making me sick.
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p>This same group of dedicated public servants finds the only way to take care of the budget woes they created is on the backs of the disabled by closing facilities and cutting funding.
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p>What vendetta has this administration got against these people. I call it a vendetta since it appears it will stop at nothing to achieve Fernald’s closure. Right down to declaring an emergency situation, that it created, that results in the complete elimination of these people’s legal rights. It is an ABOMINATION.
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p>Ways and Means have given the Governor the “way and the means” to complete his objective. Isn’t it too bad the only thing the powerful Patrick administration has been able to accomplish is bullying the most powerless people in our society from their home, striping them of their legal rights, and putting their lives in jeopardy. Hope and change?????
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p>PS….I’m still waiting for my property tax relief.
is no emergency at all!
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p>If they need dollars, they should look within at
the waste and outright fraud taking place at DDS on an ongoing basis. Why are many DDS employees paid twice the salary of workers in the private sector during an economic recession? Why are the salaries of the “private” vendor CEOs in excess of
$400k per year? There’s nothing private about an agency that’s funded about 99% with taxpayer money!
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p>As far as the cuts to transportation, the disabled persons affected won’t need it—they won’t be going to get their teeth cleaned!
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p>This is what DDS does—they tell people one thing and then do something completely different. When they say they will do equal or better they really mean they are planning to do not equal or better.
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p>It just comes across as fraud!