Advocates Say Burden of R.I. Cuts Fall on the Elderly and Disabled

Rhode Island social-service charities say the state’s most vulnerable populations are bearing a disproportionate brunt of the state’s spending cuts, the Providence Journal writes.

Of about $150-million in cuts, advocates said, legislators carved $78-million from human-services spending while rejecting proposals by Gov. Lincoln Chafee that would have overhauled the state sales tax and required corporations to pay taxes on more of their out-of-state income, significantly increasing revenue.

The new budget cut $24-million from programs for the developmentally disabled, reduces Supplemental Security Income payments to the elderly and disabled, and raises the share of health costs paid monthly by family’s on the state’s subsidized insurance program.

Legislative leaders said human services take up nearly 40 percent of state spending, making them a necessary target for cuts and that federal stimulus money that helped pay for some Medicaid programs had expired, exacerbating Rhode Island’s deficit.