State Senator Toni Nathaniel Harp
October 20, 2009
Harp, Looney Welcome Attorney General’s Ruling Re: Saving High Meadows Funding
Governor Rell sought to ignore state law; a victory for the mentally ill
Senate Majority Leader Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven) and state Sen. Toni N. Harp (D-New Haven) today welcomed a legal opinion from Attorney General Richard Blumenthal which unequivocally states that Gov. M. Jodi Rell cannot ignore legislative intent and unilaterally close the High Meadows state home for mentally ill teens.
High Meadows, at 825 Hartford Turnpike in Hamden, is a residential treatment facility for male adolescents ages 12-20 with significant emotional and behavioral problems. The High Meadows Child Study Treatment Home opened in August 1957 as the first public residential institution for children in Connecticut. At full capacity, High Meadows can accommodate 42 adolescents.
“This is a welcome decision considering how long we have been battling the governor on this issue,” Sen. Looney said. “Governor Rell’s attempt to close this facility despite the General Assembly’s provision of funding to maintain these essential services was very troubling, inasmuch as it was a clear overreach of her executive power, in much the same way as the governor recently and wrongly sought to use her line-item veto power in a budget she did not sign. Today’s decision is an important clarification of the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of government.”
“The High Meadows facility effectively helps some of the most unfortunate and vulnerable among us and ought to be protected even more vigorously in difficult economic times like these, precisely because its clients and their families would otherwise have nowhere else to turn for the essential services provided,” said Sen. Harp, who is Senate Chair of the Appropriations Committee. “I welcome Attorney General Blumenthal’s legal interpretation of our legislative, budgetary and sincere intent to maintain funding for High Meadows so its programs continue uninterrupted and its clients receive the care their conditions warrant.”
Governor Rell and officials from the state Department of Children and Families have stated for several months their intention to close High Meadows as soon as possible — perhaps as early as the end of this month — in order to achieve budgetary savings through reduced operating costs and abandoned capital improvements.
But in his letter today responding to a request from Democratic legislative leaders for a formal legal opinion on the matter, Attorney General Blumenthal said Gov. Rell cannot unilaterally close High Meadows.
“We conclude that the General Assembly intended to fully fund High Meadows in the recently adopted biennial budget. We further conclude that the Governor lacks the constitutional or statutory authority to close High Meadows,” he wrote.
|
Senator Harp’s |
Listing of Senator Harp’s recent press releases and a Press Kit with official head shots and bio. |
Press Aide Laurence Grotheer |
