Senator Kevin Parker on the Restoration of $90 million cut from Services to the Disabled

(Brooklyn, NY) “Only seven weeks ago, my Legislative colleagues were stunned by the Governor’s $120 million budget cut from services to the developmentally disabled. Thankfully by the end of negotiations we were able to restore $30 million of the of $120 million cut.

The Governor’s cuts reduced funding for our most vulnerable community members, and to the agencies that serve them. Our restoration of $30 million moderated the negative effects of that cut, but in the end people with developmental disabilities and their families lost essential services that they and their families rely on every day.

I am pleased to say that over the past week, my legislative colleagues and I were able to restore the remaining $90 million the Governor cut from services and service providers for the developmentally disabled. More than 130,000 New Yorkers and 700 not-for-profit services groups had been affected by the Governor’s cuts.

With our action to restore this vital funding for New Yorkers with developmental disabilities, including intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorders, and other disabilities, New York is no longer balancing its budget upon the backs of our most vulnerable populations.

As legislators, I believe we have a duty to help those in need of our aid, and to work to keep the State’s actions from having a disparate negative impact upon any of our communities in our diverse state of New York.”

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About Senator Kevin Parker

Senator Kevin S. Parker is intimately familiar with the needs of his ethnically diverse Brooklyn community that consists of 318,000 constituents in Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood, Ditmas Park, Kensington, Windsor Terrace, and Park Slope.  He is the Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee, Assistant Democratic Leader for Intergovernmental Affairs, and Chair of the Democratic Task Force on New Americans.