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Divert some movie money to care of developmentally disabled

(Editor’s note: An earlier version of this editorial used “Arcs” as shorthand for all non-government agencies that care for people with developmental disabilities, but not all such agencies are associated with the Arc label — for instance, Franklin County’s Citizen Advocates.)

Friday’s editorial questioned New York’s tax credits for the movie and television industry, saying we’d like to see them reduced and redistributed in some way; currently 90 percent of the benefits go to New York City.

Related to that, on Friday afternoon we received a press release from state Sen. James Tedisco, a Republican from Glenville, north of Schenectady. He wants to take $45 million out of the coming year’s $420 million film production tax credit and divert it to non-government agencies that care for people with developmental disabilities.

Since we have publicly said such groups should get more state funding and the movie industry should get less, we can’t help but agree with Sen. Tedisco.

For people with developmental disabilities, our local Adirondack Arc and Citizen Advocates offer places to live, in-home assistance, jobs, job training, help in seeking employment, Medicaid coordination and, for young children, three Children’s Corner preschools in Tupper Lake, Saranac Lake and Malone. These are essential services disabled New Yorkers and their families rely on.

The state still funds them, but not enough, and then undercuts them in ways that have real, detrimental effects on people here.

For instance, the state has started requiring every such service to be fully funded on its own, which means an organization can’t take money from one service and put it toward another. This caused the elimination of the Adirondack Arc’s early intervention program, by which the organization sent staff members to the homes and day-care centers of young children with disabilities, up to age 3. Helping these children at such an early stage of development is invaluable to their future education and socialization. Why, when New York is pushing preschool in such a big way, would it take that away from some of the kids who need it most?

Deb Roddy, director of the Adirondack Arc’s Children’s Corner, wrote in a recent letter to the editor that “When he first came into office, (Gov. Andrew) Cuomo cut reimbursement rates for early intervention (EI) services by 10 percent. Since that time, nothing has been done to restore any of these monies, and therapists and agencies can no longer afford to provide these services. In Franklin County, BOCES first had to stop their EI program, and then the Adirondack Arc had to make the same difficult decision last summer. Meanwhile, there are huge waiting lists for such services as physical, occupational and speech therapies as well as special instruction.”

She contrasted that with Cuomo’s proposed investments to our area’s tourism industry, tens of millions of dollars’ worth.

Also, Adirondack Arc and Citizen Advocates are among many employers hurt by minimum wage increases. We hope the state will start paying them enough to pay their workers the newly mandated wage.

That’s exactly what Sen. Tedisco is asking it to do.

“Our state should be placing at least as high a priority in recruiting and retaining the best and brightest individuals to care for our developmentally disabled citizens as it does in luring Hollywood studios to film in New York City,” he said.

Well, of course.

When we sort wants and needs, movies and TV are clearly wants. Care for people with disabilities is a serious need. We hope the governor and legislators get those priorities straight as they negotiate the 2017-18 state budget.

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