Projo Politics Blog

Another top official is leaving state government, attributing the decision at least in part to the budget cuts enacted by the General Assembly in June.

Reeva Murphy, childcare administrator for the Department of Human Services, on Friday left the post she had held for eight years.

“I feel like people in state government don’t have the resources they need,” Murphy, 50, told Political Scene last week. “The cuts were very deep.”

Today she begins a Ph.D. program in social policy and management at Brandeis University.

She had hoped to continue working in state government, at least part time, while pursuing her doctorate at the Massachusetts university. But she did not expect Governor Carcieri to propose a fiscal 2008 budget that narrowed eligibility guidelines for state-subsidized childcare from 225 percent of the federal poverty rate to 150 percent.

The General Assembly would later restore some of the proposed cut, but Murphy said the move represented a step backwards for a successful program that had gained national respect. An estimated 1,500 Rhode Island families will lose childcare coverage Sept. 1.

Murphy said she was most bothered that the governor and his directors made the policy decision without her input. She said she learned it was coming “a few days” before the budget was released, without having a chance to discuss the policy.

“That’s the first time that’s happened to me since I’ve been here. There’s always been a lot of discussion. Not that you always win the battle, but you always have a say,” she said. “The fact that there was so little dialogue about this policy decision was frustrating to me. And I feel like that wasn’t using my policy expertise. That did play a part in my decision to move on.”

Before proposing the cuts, the governor had several meetings with DHS Director Gary Alexander and Jane A. Hayward, secretary of the Office of Health and Human Services, according to Neal.

“All the policy implications were thoroughly reviewed,” he said. “Reeva Murphy has been an extraordinary advocate on behalf of children in this state. The governor appreciates and values her contributions to Rhode Island during her time at the Department of Human Services.”

Tom Dwyer, the associate director of child welfare at the Department of Children, Youth and Families, told Political Scene earlier in the month that he was leaving state government after more than 30 years because of the budget cuts.

“The time has come that I can no longer participate in the choices being made, which fail to make our most needy and vulnerable children a top priority,” Dwyer said in an e-mail to hundreds of DCYF staff.

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