Hauppauge Rally for Nonprofit Providers Draws Over 1,000

Chants of "No more cuts" and "We count too" echoed throughout Perry Duryea State Office Building parking lot in Hauppauge on Friday as more than 1,000 people protested Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed funding cuts to services for the developmentally disabled.

"I don't understand what the governor is thinking by cutting these people, of all people," said Margaret Raustiala, mother of an autistic son and member of the Alliance of Long Island Agencies, a group that represents over 35 Long Island nonprofits. "Restore the money, restore the cut, find some other place to cut ... all I know is this cannot happen. It's really, really sad." 

While Young Adult Institute has a Commack site, the organization with headquarters in New York City had most of its volunteers at a rally in Manhattan. In Hauppauge, however, voices still cried a similar message.

Seth Stein, executive director of the Alliance of Long Island Agencies, which assists roughly 10,000 people on the Island with disabilities, said that there have been state Senators and Assembly members who have been outspoken in having all funding restored from the proposed 6-percent cuts. 

"I understand that we have individuals in the legislature that are supporting full restoration, the negotiations are going on today, we expect the budget to be resolved today, tomorrow, by the weekend at the latest," he said. "We're optimistic that when the dust settles this cut will be gone." 

The proposed 6 percent cuts to the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities would result in a reduction of more than $120 million that would fund developmentally disabled services.

But on the heels of cuts in recent years, YAI put a call out recently to family and friends on its website last week saying that the proposed further cuts are just too much.

A letter from Stephen E. Freeman, CEO of YAI, and Eliot P. Green, chair of the Board of Trustees, reads in part: "Over the past years agencies like ours have tightened our belts in response to severe cuts. The system of care for people with developmental disabilities in New York State is in a sensitive and critical period of transition. YAI, and other voluntary agencies, are committed to the reform and innovation needed to provide better support for people with disabilities in more cost effective ways."

YAI, with headquarters in New York City, serves more than 20,000 people according to its website.

According to a North Country Radio Report, the proposed cuts are the result of federal medical coverage overpayments to the state for the past 20 years. The state budget for next year must be finalized before April 1. 

Stein said there are four rallies taking place Friday, including Hauppauge’s, across New York demanding these proposed cuts be reversed.

“All of us that are disabled, we need the programs. We live in a normal society just like the staff does, just like everyone else,” said Ivy Ferdinand, a Quality Assurance worker at AHRC Nassau who also receives its services. “Just think about it Mr. Cuomo, what if it was you, and you had a son or a daughter or an aunt or an uncle or a cousin that was disabled and you found out that they were taking 6 percent away from them?”

“We do not need budget cuts at all because everybody around the whole state is going to be effected by this,” added Cathy Loquercio, president of the Board of Directors of People with Developmental Disabilities Speaking Up for Ourselves. “They're going to lose a lot of services, they're going to lose staff, the programs and a lot of Medicaid stuff.”

Additional reporting provided by Associate Regional Editor Joseph Pinciaro.