NJ disability program faces $3M cut in proposed budget. Advocates call it ‘devastating’

• New Jersey’s Centers for Independent Living, which provide services to people with disabilities, face a proposed $3 million budget cut.
• Disability advocates argue that the cuts would severely affect the centers’ ability to offer essential services like job training and accessible housing assistance.
• Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration says “belt-tightening” is necessary as the state faces fiscal challenges.

Disability advocates across the state are calling on lawmakers to reverse a proposed $3 million cut to New Jersey’s Centers for Independent Living, which assist with job training and other resources for thousands of clients.

“This is a devastating setback to the disability community,” said Donald Campbell, executive director of the Atlantic Center for Independent Living in Galloway. “CILs are not just service providers — they’re lifelines. They help people get out of bed in the morning, find accessible housing, secure jobs and transition out of institutions.”

The cuts in Gov. Phil Murphy’s budget proposal would amount to a 45% reduction in the centers’ $6.7 million operating budget, which relies on both state and federal dollars, said Carmela Slivinski, who directs the DAWN Center for Independent Living in Denville.

New Jersey has 12 Centers for Independent Living, all run by nonprofit groups that serve the state’s 21 counties. The programs offer services designed to help people with disabilities live more independently and participate in society, supporters said.

Murphy’s $58.1 billion budget plan, introduced in February, must still pass through the state Legislature, where lawmakers are likely to make changes. His fiscal blueprint includes more spending for tax relief and school funding, but it’s also being crafted as Republicans in Washington contemplate deep cuts to Medicaid and other programs that fund state services.

Maggie Garbarino, Murphy’s deputy press secretary, said “some belt-tightening” was necessary to protect the state’s long-term priorities. As a result, the proposed budget eliminates most of the direct grants that were awarded without competition last year, and it significantly reduces funding for many older grants, she said.

Questions to Murphy’s office on whether the administration planned alternative support for the centers and how it weighed the potential loss of services went unanswered.

The only option for some with disabilities

The centers serve clients of all ages and types of disabilities and are often the only option for people who acquire a disability later in life, such as from a car accident or stroke, Slivinksi said. Those people often don’t qualify for programs like those offered by the state’s Division of Developmental Disabilities.

Customers can connect with services that make homes accessible, find transportation options and offer employment training. Often the help comes from peers — 51% of CIL employees also have a disability. In 2023, the programs helped 7,800 people statewide, said Marily Gonzalez, CEO of the Heightened Independence and Progress Center in Hackensack.

Center directors said their offices play a unique role in helping people navigate fragmented benefit systems and access lesser-known resources, such as foundations that can help pay for wheelchairs when insurance won’t pay.

“These individuals have needs, but no programs are designed for them,” said Slivinski. “We’re often the only place they can turn to.”

CILs have always operated with limited resources, she added. “I’ve been with my center for 26 years now, and I don’t remember a day when we weren’t fighting for additional resources,” she said.

State funding enabled Slivinski’s DAWN Center for Independent Living to hire two staff members and buy a car. The center created a mobile office that goes to the rural areas of Sussex and Warren counties to help people who have a hard time reaching more populated areas.

“We meet people where they’re at,” she said. Without the money, “that’s going to go away.”

The newer employees at Slivinski’s center won’t be the only ones to lose their jobs. At the Heightened Independence and Progress Center, which serves Bergen and Hudson counties, the cut could affect over 30 positions, many held by people with disabilities, Gonzalez said.

Slivinski said she understands that budgets are tight, but the amount in question is small in the context of state spending, she argued.

Murphy wants to ‘leave the state flush’

“It’s a drop in the bucket for the state,” she said. Still, she said, “some of the smaller centers will not be able to survive this,” she said.

Slivinski recently met with representatives of Murphy’s office to explain the scope of CIL services and was told the proposed cut was part of a sweep of discretionary appropriations aimed at reducing the size of the budget.

“We were told the governor had wanted to leave the state flush, and all of the funding that was considered discretionary funding, like an appropriation through the Legislature, was wiped away,” she said.

The CILs have since been meeting with legislators, including members of the Assembly Budget Committee and the Legislature’s Disability Caucus, in hopes of getting the money reinstated.

A message to state Assemblywoman Ellen Park, a Bergen County Democrat and vice chairwoman of the chamber’s Budget Committee, wasn’t immediately returned.

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Both Campbell and Slivinski said the consequences of the funding cut would go beyond lost programs. The centers play a crucial role in helping people with disabilities remain in their communities, avoiding costly and often inappropriate institutional care, they said.

“When the funding disappears, the services disappear — and with them, our independence,” Campbell said.

He urged residents to contact legislators and ask for the funding to be restored.

“The cure for despair is action,” he said.