Senate committee to decide on Gov. Schwarzenegger’s budget attack on California’s disabled

Senate committee to decide on Gov. Schwarzenegger’s budget attack on California’s disabled, elderly and blind
IHSS Advocates decry Governor's gamble with independence for people with disabilities

SACRAMENTO – On Wednesday, March 28, the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee will decide the fate of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s budget plan of slashing funding for a popular state program that allows more than 365,000 California seniors and people with disabilities to stay safely at home and avoid unnecessary, expensive and unwanted institutionalization. Since elected, Schwarzenegger has made a ritual of proposing severe cuts to the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program. This year, Schwarzenegger has Sen. Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto) doing his bidding with SB 782.

Specifically, SB 782 proposes to freeze state financial participation in wages and benefits for IHSS providers to the level in effect in each county on the day that the freeze takes effect.

"The Governor gives lip-service to policies like health care for the uninsured, but then turns around and strips funding for home care programs, forcing the elderly and people with disabilities into institutional care," said John Wilkins, an IHSS consumer from Fresno. "It's the height of hypocrisy and shows, yet again, that he probably doesn't realize what he's doing with this spending plan."

Schwarzenegger's budget severely cuts the state's funding for the wages of the 365,000 home care providers who provide care for IHSS consumers, most of whom are seniors with disabilities.
The Governor's state budget proposal as embodied in SB 782 does not reduce the wages paid to IHSS providers; rather, it limits state participation to the level of wages and benefits approved for each county on or before the effective date of the bill. The non-federal costs to increase IHSS wages and benefits would fall to the individual counties and most counties could not afford to make up the loss of state funding for IHSS. For the counties to make up for the state contribution to increased wages and benefits could in some cases as much as double or triple the county’s costs.

The state reaps the benefits of what counties negotiate in IHSS wages and benefits. The IHSS program is cost-effective; it produces savings in other parts of the long-term care continuum, especially in nursing homes and the system for the developmentally disabled. The cost savings primarily come from avoidance of institutionalization, which is far more expensive. The Legislative Analyst estimates that the annual spending on each IHSS recipient is $9,924, whereas disabled nursing home patients cost about $60,000 annually. Counties have a share of cost in IHSS; however, counties do not have a share of cost for higher levels of care within the long-term care continuum. Counties are funding this very cost-effective program but it is the state – not counties – that benefits from the IHSS cost-savings.

"IHSS is my independence," said Bill Young, an IHSS consumer in Sacramento County. "I depend on my IHSS provider to perform daily tasks that most people take for granted. This Governor's proposal puts my freedom to live my life at tremendous risk."

Schwarzenegger's spending plan ignores findings by non-profit groups and home care activists, showing the effects of cuts on the IHSS program. Lowering state funding for home care worker pay to the $7.50 minimum wage, and eliminating any funding for workers' benefits, will increase the already high turnover rate in the program. More workers will be forced to leave their disabled clients to find higher-paying alternative work to support their families. The supply of home care workers will further diminish, making it more difficult for Californians to remain safely in their homes.

California legislators from both parties support IHSS, which is nationally praised as a model state program for helping the elderly and disabled live independently. In 2001, President Bush focused his "New Freedom Initiative" on expanding home-based, long-term care solutions, of which IHSS is a prime example.

"In-Home Supportive Services is a cost-effective state program that Republicans and Democrats have always supported," said Jovan Agee, Political and Legislative Director of the United Domestic Workers of America/AFSCME. "I don't get it. Governor Schwarzenegger talks about bi-partisanship and post-partisanship in California, but then threatens a state program that leaders in both parties support."

"Schwarzenegger tried to make these draconian budget cuts last year and lawmakers in both the Assembly and Senate voted to reject them," said Herb Meyer, a conservative recipient of IHSS services. "I guess it's a good thing the Governor's thinking of making health care more accessible, because many of the people he's hurting will probably need it."

The state coffers last year collected record-breaking tax revenue, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office. Schwarzenegger, himself, said in his State of the State address: "This year California has the highest revenues in its history, the highest revenues in its history..."
However, California's poverty rate is the third-highest in the country—behind only Washington, D.C., and New York—according to calculations of poverty rates that include cost-of-housing released by the non-profit Public Policy Institute of California.

ABOUT IHSS
California taxpayers help care for people with disabilities, the elderly, and blind, who, as consumers, are served by the state’s In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS).These IHSS consumers are able to live independently with the help of quality personal care, instead of being institutionalized at hospitals or nursing facilities. The result is people with disabilities and the elderly are treated respectfully and taxpayer dollars are saved by avoiding costly institutions. California’s residents who needed personal care services in order to live independently and safely in their own homes joined with other stakeholders and state lawmakers to convince Gov. Reagan of the need for home care, rather than institutionalization. Gov. Reagan agreed with lawmakers and signed into law the creation of California’s IHSS program in 1973 to enable people with disabilities and the elderly to live independently in their homes.