Hochul Continues to Break Promises to Much of New York’s Disabled Population
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By Tara Klein
It was only one sentence in Gov. Hochul’s State of the State message in January, but the pure mention of those with disabilities brought hope to hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities and their families across New York.
“We’re enacting a vision of New York…Where people with disabilities have pathways to pursue their dreams,” Hochul said.
Unfortunately, the promise of that hope was broken in only one week when the governor unveiled her proposed budget.
“Today, I’ve told you how we’ll build that bridge in 2024. We’re enacting a vision of New York where veterans embark upon incredible careers, fighting the climate crisis with green energy and offshore wind. Where unions are strong and our infrastructure is resilient, able to withstand hundred-year storms. Where all children learn to read and swim. Where people with disabilities have pathways to pursue their dreams. Where our LGBTQ+ neighbors are free to be their true selves.”
What the governor fails to understand is that her cuts to vital services such as Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Programs (CDPAP), or continuing to underfund the direct care workforce that provides critical support to those with disabilities, robs them of their hopes and dreams.
CDPAP is a Medicaid program for people with disabilities that allows them to self-direct their own care. That means the people using the services recruit, hire, train, supervise and, if need be, terminate their own workers. Since the program’s inception in 1995, and even before that when it was a mere pilot project, it has allowed people who cannot self-direct services themselves to use a “designated representative” or DR to do it for them.
Gov. Hochul’s budget would eliminate the role of the DR, denying children, many adults with developmental disabilities, those with Alzheimer’s or dementia, people who are non-verbal or face a language barrier and thousands of others a path to self-direction.
On Oct. 1, the governor’s proposal would immediately end services for 100,000 people, with no identifiable way for them to receive services in the current workforce crisis. What’s frustrating is the governor’s failure to recognize that programs like CDPAP save taxpayers billions of dollars every year because these services would otherwise be in a residential setting, nursing home or hospital. Even other community-based services would cost thousands more per year.
It’s time for the governor to value the critical contribution families make and fund these programs, keeping her promise to create pathways for people with disabilities to pursue their hopes and dreams. If the governor is going to quote FDR and wants “our great state to succeed,” she better be prepared to lend a hand to people with disabilities and the hardworking families who work tirelessly to support them at home.
Tara Klein is a Pleasantville resident and a longtime advocate for those with disabilities.
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