Moratorium on closing state's psychiatric centers backed in Legislature

The state Legislature is expected to send a bill to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's desk that would put a three-year moratorium on closing four state institutions for the disabled and mentally ill.

The bill is sponsored by Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo and Sen. Thomas Libous, who are Binghamton legislators opposed to the planned closure of the Broome Development Center. The center is expected to close in 2016, and opponents said it would lead to the displacement of hundreds of people in need.

"What this bill is simply trying to do is to slow up the process," Lupardo said. "We’re not in any way trying to minimize the importance of transiting people, who are appropriate, into community settings."

Earlier this year, the state quietly delayed plans to close some psychiatric centers, including the one in Rochester, and create regional centers.

The state last year said it would close four centers for people with developmental disabilities -- including two in New York City and one in Schenectady -- as a way to comply with state and federal mandates to provide services to residents in more community-based settings.

As of last year, the Broome Developmental Center had 692 full-time equivalent positions and served 166 people. State officials have stressed that no layoffs would come from the closures; workers would be relocated.

The state Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services has raised concerns about the bill -- which would postpone closures of facilities overseen by state offices of Mental Health and People with Developmental Disabilities until April 1, 2017.

"This would put New York at legal risk for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision and needlessly keep people with disabilities in institutions that are far more costly to taxpayers," the group said in an email to supporters today.