Nonprofit agencies that serve disabled people and drug addicts throughout Connecticut called on the governor and state lawmakers Thursday to provide $200 million in new funding to head off what they called a fiscal crisis.
The organizations said cost increases for health care premiums for workers, gasoline for transportation vans, heating oil and other necessities have far outpaced the state aid they have received. They said they have been underfunded for the past 20 years.
Agency leaders said more problems are on the horizon because the state budget contains no increase for them for the fiscal year that begins next July 1.
“The current state budget … is simply a slap in the face to our clients who often can’t care for themselves,” said Barry Kasdan, president and chief executive officer of Milford-based Bridges … A Community Support System Inc., which provides outpatient mental health and addiction services to about 5,000 people in southern Connecticut.
“We do not believe the governor and members of the legislature are deliberately hurting the clients we serve, but their decisions are having that effect,” said Kasdan, who is also chairman of the board for the Connecticut Community Providers Association.
Members of the providers association, who have contracts with the state to serve about 500,000 people, said their average annual increase in state aid has been 1.4 percent over the past 20 years.
They say that while the consumer price index has increased nearly 88 percent since 1987, their state aid has only gone up about 28 percent. Providers got a 3 percent increase in the current fiscal year, with the aid totaling more than $1 billion.
Christopher Cooper, a spokesman for Gov. M. Jodi Rell, said the funding issue will be revisited in budget talks in the legislative session that begins in February. He noted that annual aid increases to providers have averaged 3 percent during Rell’s administration, which dates back to 2004.
The providers association is asking for $135 million in immediate aid to “stabilize the system” and make up for past funding shortfalls, and another $65 million for a capital improvement fund for renovations and maintenance to their buildings.
They also proposed setting up a commission to review whether the state should provide automatic aid increases based on economic indexes.
The underfunding, the providers say, has resulted in agency worker jobs going unfilled and potential clients being turned away or put on waiting lists. They say some people who have been turned away have ended up in emergency rooms or jail.
