Disability Policy Consortium FY13 Budget Update
Dear william,
The Governor released House 2 today. At first blush, the the disability agencies did "okay" with a couple of big questions that are not answered from just looking at the numbers.
Mass Office on Disabilities, Talking Book Libraries, and the Disabled Persons Protection Commission were essentially level funded. This may indeed be a cut, since it doesn't include any cost of living increases even for union contracts.
Mass Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is $380,000 better than last year. There's still a long way to go to bring them back to where they were.
Mass Commission for the Blind is down$478,171 in the Community Services account, but that may represent a consolidation of something in the Commissioner's account which increase by $397,000. Elsewhere, MCB lost over $8 million in the SSI account which has most likely been consolidated in the Dept of Transitional Assistance given the effort to pay State Supplements directly.
Mass Rehab Commission took another hit in Homemaker Services (so much for Community First), new Turning 22, and employment service. the Independent Living account was level funded.
Developmental Services saw a $11.6 million transportation line item disappear. There's a story there that we're not privy to.
Mental Health Department came out $28 million better than FY12 with no real cuts in line items.
There will be more stories as other analysts have time to analyze.
The DPC spreadsheet can be found on ur web site www.dpcma.org> Issues>Legislation & Budget or by clicking the link below.
FY13 Budget
Bill Allan
Disability Policy Consortium
wfallan@dpcma.org| 617-542-3822