Budget cuts target child welfare program

Good morning!

We’re about a month away from the state’s budget deadline and we’re still learning about planned cuts that have critics alarmed.

The latest, via Lilo Stainton, comes out of the Cares Institute at Rowan University, which is internationally recognized for its work with abused, neglected, and traumatized children and their families. Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s $60.7 billion budget plan would eliminate the institute’s $1.85 million in state aid.

“This will just weaken the child-welfare and justice systems and their ability to accurately identify and respond to abuse and neglect,” Lori Galiano, a clinical care administrator who has worked at the Cares Institute for nearly 26 years, told Lilo.

The Sherrill administration has zeroed out dozens of budget items in the governor’s push to reduce the budget’s structural deficit (the total spending amount remains higher than it was in the current budget year).

“The purse straps are tight, I know,” Galiano said. “There are a lot of worthy causes and I get that.”

She added, “But we’re talking about children who cannot go to Trenton and ask for money themselves.”

Read more from Lilo.

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