Lawmakers Cutting Connecticut Budget Spare Mental Health Services
HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork) - Lawmakwers in Hartford have okayed a quarter of a billion dollars in budget cuts to pare down the deficit.
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Hospitals and education will take a big hit.
But in the wake of the Newtown massacre, they have steered clear of any cuts to nonprofits which provide care for the mentally challenged.
These providers haven't had a cost of living increase in years, but St. Sen. Scott Frantz said they will get a slight boost.
"There is a provision for a half percent, point five percent, rate increase for, I believe, most of the nonprofits, if not all," he told WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau.
The nonprofits have not had a rate hike in the last four years and operators of these community-based providers say that has meant very low salaries for their workers wh care for the mentally fragile.
Adam Lanza, who killed 26 people and himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, was mentally challenged, but it has not been determined if there was a direct connection between that and the massacre.
