Cost of Living adjustment

Hi everyone

This is the commentary I give on WINY 1350 AM radio this morning. Please give me some feedback on this topic. I want to hear form you.

One thing that has really been bugging me for a while is, the CT Legislature has not given Private Providers, who support people with disabilities, a cost of living adjustment in some 20 years. In that same time frame they have given state workers a raise many times. Why not give others a sample cost of living adjustment like you give yourselves? My question is, why is it that people with disabilities and their support systems always at the bottom of the totem pole? People with disabilities are one of the largest minority groups in the country, in fact, according to the U.S. Census Bureau more than 54 million U.S. residents, or about 19 percent of the population have some sort of disability, but they are the last group to receive recognition, services and monetary help. People with disabilities need assistance, and in order to keep good employees we need to keep up with the cost of living adjustments as most of the competitors do. What I mean by this is, the cost of living has gone up every year for 20 years and it’s getting tougher and tougher to keep our staff. If I did not have a person helping me with my daily living tasks and pushing me to be my best I would not be here today. We are not asking for much just one little cost of living adjustment in 20 long years.

2009 will be a pivotal year in this fight as the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) will be conducting a detailed cost review of care provided in a institutional settings as apposed to care provided in the community. One of the factors they will be looking at is the difference in staff costs between public (state) and private providers. Hopefully this report will show that it is a cost savings to the state to have their people within DDS served by private providers. This is not about the many state employees who are caring wonderful people who work very hard to support us. This is about the system not recognizing that employees who work in private provider agencies work just as hard and are just as caring and supportive of us. After all, no matter, whether you work for the state or The Arc you are working toward the same goals, to support individuals with disabilities to become independent and accepted members of their community.

Connecticut is only one of three states in the Union that still provide a two tier service where all other states provide all their services through the use of Private Providers and at a greatly reduced cost to the State.

Senator Dan Debicella of Connecticut is in the process along with others in putting together a bill that would move the 4000 clients that are supported by DDS and moving them to be supported by The Private Provider. Even after adjusting the salaries upwards for the Private Provider's the savings to The State could exceed 400 million annually.