Several nonprofit programs that support New Jerseyans with developmental disabilities are facing elimination under Gov. Phil Murphy’s proposed budget, a prospect that has alarmed advocates who say they provide critical support to the community.
Murphy’s $58.1 billion budget plan, now in state lawmakers’ hands, includes $4 million in cuts to grants handed out annually by the state’s Division of Developmental Disabilities . The money supports nonprofits that provide disabled New Jerseyans with physical and occupational therapy, legal help to negotiate with insurers, job training and other services.
“It wasn’t a surgical cut. It was a flat cut of the whole line,” said Thomas Baffuto, executive director of The Arc of New Jersey, one of the state’s biggest disability service providers. “From what we understand, they didn’t look at what was in those lines before cutting them.”…