State Senator Gayle Slossberg
June 16, 2008
Statement From Senator Slossberg on Governor’s ‘Unconscionable’ Veto of Human Services Cabinet Legislation
State Senator Gayle Slossberg (D-Milford), Senate chair of the Government Administration & Elections Committee, today issued the following statement on Governor M. Jodi Rell's veto of legislation to create a statewide Community-based Health and Human Services Cabinet:
"This veto is unconscionable. Our nonprofits provide services for Connecticut's most vulnerable residents, and they do so at a great cost savings to the state, but they are sinking under a tide of ever-increasing expenses. Our current nonprofit system is simply not sustainable.
"We need to identify short and long-term solutions to these problems, and that's exactly what this legislation would have done. This was the mechanism we had to finally get to the problem of adequately funding our nonprofit human service providers. For the governor to turn her back on this situation is unfathomable.
"As written, this legislation created a partnership between the Executive and Legislative Branches, with strong oversight from the secretary of the Office of Policy and Management over any contracts. This was not a bureaucracy; this was a diagnostic tool and a means to keep nonprofits afloat and protect the state from incurring even greater costs.
"The legislature understood this need and approved this legislation unanimously during regular session. It's unfortunate that, instead of being part of the solution, the governor is choosing to put her head in the sand and pretend the problem doesn't exist. That's a loss for the state of Connecticut."
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