McDonald Calls on Governor Paterson to Restore Cuts for Child Abuse Prevention

Albany- January 28, 2009 - Senator Roy McDonald (Saratoga), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Children and Families, is calling on Governor David Paterson to restore the cuts to child abuse prevention that he proposed in his Executive Budget.

The number of reported child abuse cases in New York State has skyrocketed in the last several years, impacting more than 75,000 children across the state.  From 2000 to 2007, the number of children abused in Saratoga County rose by 18 percent, and increased 8 percent in Rensselaer County.  

While New York State spends more than $2.4 billion each year to treat the consequences of child abuse very little money is invested to prevent the abuse from happening in the first place. 

 Senator McDonald said, “The State should be focusing its resources to prevent child abuse from happening in the first place instead of putting more kids in danger.  Statistics show that it costs less money to prevent child abuse than it does to treat the consequences of abuse.  I am asking the Governor to restore these cuts in his 30-day budget amendments.”

Attached is a letter that Senator McDonald and two of his Senate colleagues sent to Governor Paterson requesting the restoration of critical funding for child abuse programs. 

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