Mental Health Connecticut’s (MHC) President and CEO, Luis Perez joined Gary Stock from Wellmore Behavioral Health and Leadership and the CT Community Nonprofit Alliance for a virtual press conference on Monday, 6/14 at 11:30 a.m. to talk about the urgent need for increased funding for mental health and substance abuse in the budget.
Watch the press conference here:
Each state budget cycle, Connecticut’s social service system finds itself in a classic situation of “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
As one of 500+ community-based non-profits in our state, Mental Health Connecticut has been active in every budget cycle for nearly 30 years and every budget cycle has felt like a game of “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” As the legislature and the Governor decide which discretionary fund to pay over another (since all social services are not a mandatory part of the state budget). This year is different.
This year, for the first time in Connecticut’s history, we are going to see a $2.33 billion surplus our state budget. With the Alliance for CT Nonprofits leading the charge, we have spent months advocating for the state to allocate $461 million for community-based non-profits.
This amount makes our industry whole. It shores up the dollars that have continuously been stripped away.
Now, in the final stretch of budget negations, we’ve learned that an amendment was filed to cover $100M of the cost of the Governor’s settlement with DDS providers. Why? There is more than enough money in the State’s coffers to not rob Peter to pay Paul.
With the biggest surplus in state’s history and federal dollars coming in from the American Rescue Plan Act, there is nothing stopping the legislature and the Governor from using these funds to ensure the entire system is funded equitably for providers, staff, and the people we serve.
My organization and hundreds of others RELY on these dollars to help our employees improve their cost of living and to pay for expenses that allow us to provide our vital services.
“If not now, when?” has been our mantra for months. If the biggest surplus in Connecticut’s state history isn’t now, when is “now” going to be?
Luis Perez, LCSW
President & CEO
Mental Health Connecticut
The state budget passed Wednesday by the General Assembly includes significant funding increases for community nonprofits, for which we are grateful. However, the budget does not include rate increases for Medicaid-funded behavioral health services, and cuts ARPA funding proposed for mental health services.
Click here to read the Alliance Final State Budget Analysis
We need to contact legislators, legislative leaders, and Governor Lamont now to urge them to fix this inequity in a Special Session package that is expected to be voted on by Wednesday.
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