Disability rights advocates say they are fed up with what they say is a lack of response from Governor Cuomo on funding for services that help them stay in their communities, including lack of funds to pay home health care workers adequate wages. At a protest outside the governor’s offices, Bruce Darling, with the Center for Disability Rights, displayed a special award that the group fashioned for Cuomo, it features a five-inch gold screw on a trophy pedestal.
“We’ve had enough, so we are issuing the ‘Screw the Disabled Award’ for Governor Cuomo,” said Darling. “His office would not even meet with us.”
25 were arrested for blocking the hallway.
A spokesman for the governor, Rich Azzopardi, said in a statement that Cuomo officials “ have met with many of the groups represented here, both in the past and today, to discuss these issues and are committed to working with them in the future to find solutions”.
Azzopardi says Cuomo also signed an executive order, known as Employment First, that supports jobs for disabled people, and has already committed $6 billion dollars to the home care workforce, including funds to boost wages.
