Article by Erik Smith. Published on Thursday, October 06, 2011 EST.

I-1163’s Home-Care Training Program Would Cost Big Bucks When State is Broke

Gov. Christine Gregoire.

By Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

OLYMPIA, Oct. 5.—In a statement released by opponents of a November ballot measure, Gov. Christine Gregoire tosses cold water on a union-backed effort to reinstate a multi-million-dollar home-care training program.

            Initiative 1163 is a nice idea, she says, but there’s no money for it.

            It is a startling declaration from a Democratic governor because it dares to diss a top priority of the Service Employees International Union, one of the biggest-spending backers of the Democratic Party. Last year alone the union spent a whopping $3.4 million on Washington-state campaigns and races. Gregoire herself has been among the union’s beneficiaries.

            Washington State Wire left messages at the governor’s press office Wednesday afternoon in an effort to learn the context of the statement, but was unable to reach anyone. Opponents of the initiative released the statement themselves in a press release Wednesday evening.

            In it, the governor stops short of saying she opposes the SEIU ballot measure. But she says the cupboard is bare, and the state cannot afford to enact a program that will cost the state millions of dollars at a time when it must slash at least $2 billion in spending.

            Here’s what she said:

            No Funding Source

            “I agree that our long-term care workers should have additional training and certification and the truth is that we still do. Most already get 28-35 hours of training. Any long-term care worker who is paid by the state currently gets a state background check.

            “But during these tough times where we have to cut $2 billion, and possibly more, I just don’t see how we pay the money required—it calls for $31.3 million over the next six fiscal years and $16.1 million of that is in this biennium.

            “The initiative has no funding source, meaning that we will have to take from one agency or program to support this one. It’s a worthy effort, but in looking at $16 million I need to look at what other choices we must make with that—do we pay for this additional training and background checks or do we simply try to keep some of our programs running? Those are the difficult choices that must be made.”

            A $37 Million Program

            Actually, the figures cited by the governor understate things a bit. They reflect the additional cost of this year’s initiative and not the entire cost of the program. Exactly how much the whole enchilada would cost, no one can say precisely, because the state hasn’t made an official estimate. But the best guess appears to be that if the initiative passes, it would cost $37 million in the first two years alone.

            I-1163 essentially re-enacts an SEIU training program that was approved by voters in 2008, under Initiative 1029. Like current state law, it requires that home-care workers get criminal background checks. But it also mandates that all home-care workers in the state pass a costly two-week training course and a state certification test. The approximately 40,000 state-funded workers would get their training at taxpayer expense, while the 20,000 or so in the private sector would be on their own.

            There’s a reason no one knows the exact price tag: The Legislature has never gotten around to paying for it. The initiative passed right as the economy was tumbling downhill, but the measure didn’t raise any taxes to pay the bill. That meant cash-strapped lawmakers would have had to spend from the state general fund at the very moment when they were beginning to run billions and billions of dollars short. Instead, they kept delaying it and delaying it, to the point now that it appears uncertain whether the requirements will ever be implemented. As it stands right now, the requirements take effect Jan. 1, 2014.

            Which is why the union spent some $1 million this year to put the initiative back on the ballot again. This one also doesn’t have a revenue source. And the main difference between the new version and the old one is that a few of the implementation dates are switched.

            Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

            Private home-care agencies have been battling the plan for the last three years. They will face a pretty stiff bill of their own if the law ever takes effect, and taxpayers won’t be helping them with that one. They say current training programs do the job. Cindi Laws, director of the state adult-family-home association and the chairwoman of the no-on-1163 campaign, calls the training program an attempt at empire-building by the union. SEIU represents the vast majority of the home-care workers on the public dime.

            At a time when programs have been slashed, including the hours worked by home-care workers themselves, Laws says the initiative aims to force lawmakers to cut other social programs even deeper.

            “We can’t afford I-1163,” Laws said. “Not now. Not at a time when our state budget is at least $1.4 billion in the red and dropping fast. It is so cynical for I-1163’s backers to tell voters it’s O.K. to approve a spending program without suggesting how to pay for it. That’s not O.K.”

            Lawmakers will return to Olympia Nov. 28 for another round of budget cuts during a special legislative session. “I-1163 is one headache the governor shouldn’t have to deal with,” Laws said.
            The measure’s advocates aren’t responding for now. Sandeep Kaushik, spokesman for the I-1163 campaign, said backers are waiting for verification of the governor’s statement.

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