The State Budget Crisis Is About More Than Money

Rejection of the $1.6 billion concessions package by the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition and the possible layoff of thousands of state workers create conditions for serious disruptions in essential services to seniors in Connecticut.

I’m not just referring to the possibility of unfilled potholes in our roads because of 817 layoffs in the Department of Transportation, or of the impact of 1,019 fewer corrections officers on our prisons, or of what the loss of 285 staff in the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection means for our security.  These potential layoffs are the higher profile ones that will get newspaper headlines and plenty of discussion. 

What we may not read so much about are the impacts of 486 layoffs in the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, or of 239 staff laid off in the Department of Social Services. These staff persons don’t do much that the public can see. They don’t fill potholes, lock cells or prepare for the next emergency.  Many of them are more likely clerks and accountants sitting in cubicles in state offices who process paperwork, so it’s easy to assume we won’t miss them when they’re gone.

But let me give just one example of the impact of layoffs of low profile clerks and accountants. The Connecticut Home Care Program for Elders (CHCPE) provides in-home services to prevent the institutionalization of thousands of seniors statewide who would otherwise need nursing home placement, saving the client the loss of their independence and saving the state a ton of money. Those in-home services are provided by for-profit and non-profit home care agencies that receive payments from the state for the 94 percent of the costs of care not paid by clients.  Those payments are authorized and made by clerks and accountants. If you lay off enough of them, payments to the home care agencies will be delayed. 

Ask a home care agency director what will happen if the state is a month or two or three late in sending reimbursements. Do they have enough cash on hand to continue to pay staff? Can they afford to borrow to pay staff? Or will they need to discontinue services to CHCPE clients and lay off some of their own staff?

And what will happen to the nursing home-eligible elderly client they’ve been keeping out of an institution?