Last Friday, March 7, Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio (R-Baiting Hollow) held a rally attended by several hundred people at the Perry Duryea State Building in Hauppauge to call on Governor Kathy Hochul (D) to adjust her proposed executive budget to increase salaries for aides to disabled people.
Giglio, the Ranking Member on the Committee on People with Disabilities, was joined by Assemblyman Doug Smith (R-Holbrook), Ranking Member of the Education Committee, Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches), and Senator Monica Martinez (D-Brentwood), a member of the Senate Education and Disabilities committees.
Leaders of local non-profits and advocates for disability groups were also in attendance, notably Bob Policastro, former Executive Director for Angela’s House, a non-profit specializing in creating havens for medically fragile children.
“New York State must do better. We must prioritize the needs of people with disabilities and the dedicated professionals who support them. A 2.1% increase in funding is not adequate. It’s an insult, honestly,” said Assemblywoman Giglio. “It does not even come close to addressing the financial realities we face. To keep up with inflation and to provide the care and dignity our community deserves, we need a wage commission to set the rate of what the pay should be for people that work with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”
Giglio also called for the rate-setting prerogative to be given back to the Office of People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) instead of the Department of Health. She also criticized the State for not doling out checks to the affected agencies for seven months after receiving an increase in the budget last year, which, Giglio argues, was still not sufficient.
“Let’s be clear, this is not about politics. This is about people’s lives. This is about hard-working caregivers who are being forced out of the profession because they cannot survive on wages that fail to reflect the value of their work. This is about agencies that provide critical services to people who are in need. This is about the people who are in need,” said Giglio. “This community should be the ones making these decisions, not bureaucrats who have failed time and time again to meet their responsibilities. When individuals with disabilities and their caregivers have to depend on the government to survive, and the government fails them, that is not just a policy failure, it is a moral failure.”
Giglio and company are calling for a 7.8% increase in this year’s budget.
“There’s a twenty-to-twenty-five percent shortage of workers throughout the state. A lot of them are being asked to work overtime and work twenty-four shifts,” Giglio told The Messenger. “Thirty-seven State facilities closed over the last few years, so they’re keeping those beds open and transferring the few who are left to the not-for-profits.”
“Any parent can be faced with this challenge, and that includes our political leaders,” said Matthew Kuriloff, Associate Executive Director for East End Disability Associates, Inc.
Senator Martinez said she opted to be on the Disabilities Committee this term due to the calls for action on this particular issue.
“I heard loud and clear, and I want to be that voice for you as well,” said Martinez. “It takes a community to understand and to push forward with the needs that are necessary to live comfortably, to live with dignity, to have support and to have individuals who work really hard be paid the wage that they deserve.”
“7.8% is not an increase; it’s enough to keep even with the cost of living. Anything less is a decrease,” said Executive Romaine.
“You have already sent a strong message to Albany. We have so many people in this building today that we actually need to start leaving because there’s so many people. So, that means that phone calls went up and down to the State Capitol,” said Assemblyman Smith, demonstrating in real-time just how effective a large-scale rally can be.
