By Gian-Carl Casa, President & CEO, CT Community Nonprofit Alliance
On the night he was sworn into office this month, Connecticut’s 89th governor Ned Lamont danced happily — to the delight of attendees at his inaugural ball and everyone who’s seen the video since then.
The Governor’s enthusiastic embrace of his new role as Connecticut’s chief executive holds out the promise of new approaches for the Land of Steady Habits.
One of them should be delivering services to more people at lower cost. Many of Connecticut’s community nonprofits contract with the state to deliver human services. They have struggled for decades with underfunding and a dual system of providing services that the state has largely refused to change.
Connecticut has a dual system that continues to provide some human services through state-operated facilities at a significantly higher cost. The quality of services at the state level is no better or worse. It simply costs more. And because it is the way the state has always done business, it’s been difficult to change.