Initiative 1163 must be defeated because its $80 million cost cannot be paid for without tax increases or cuts to vital senior services.
Like the rest of the nation, the state of Washington has grappled with crippling budget deficits for four legislative sessions. With the governor calling a special 30-day legislative session to deal with the crisis, there are an additional 1.4 billion reasons to oppose I-1163.
Voters should not be fooled. This initiative represents the wrong priorities for Washington state. Mandatory caregiver training and criminal background checks are already required by law. This initiative will cost $80 million in the next two years and is designed solely to benefit one interest group - Service Employees International Union.
This union-sponsored measure claims to protect vulnerable adults. But what it really does is force taxpayers to pay for the watered-down training of union members, with inexperienced and uneducated trainers managed by the union, eliminating the current training conducted by medical professionals and credentialed educators - who are licensed by the state.
State officials agree. At a time when they couldn't agree on much, 82 percent of the Legislature voted to delay the previous training initiative, I-1029. At a time when legislators were eliminating entire programs, elected officials were unwilling to fund a new government project. Only the union and their few allies are supporting an expensive new program.
This is the new reality: Last spring, the Legislature cut more than $500 million in medical services and in-home care to seniors and adults with disabilities. Eliminated were vision and hearing aids, dental care, and reduction of prescription drugs coverage. In-home care services, which allow seniors and the people with disabilities to safely stay in their homes with the help of visiting caregivers, were slashed. Overall, there were more than $2 billion in cuts at the Department of Social and Health Services affecting children, the mentally ill, and the working poor. Other areas of the state budget were slashed as well, including public education and staffing at prisons.
Less than four months later, state agencies have prepared additional 10 percent cutbacks, including the elimination of another $873 million at the Department of Social and Health Services. Care will end for 17,000 seniors and adults with disabilities, the Health Care Authority has sharply reduced emergency room visits for poor people receiving Medicaid, and our correctional facilities are releasing hundreds of inmates and mental patients into the community.
There is simply no money to pay for I-1163.
Our industry is absolutely committed to the highest standards of training and professional business practices, but that isn't what this initiative is about. It's about a powerful special interest trying to write self-serving policy for the benefit of no one but themselves. We won't have it. Our residents deserve caregivers with the best and most relevant training available, and the taxpayers can't afford it.
How does the union propose to pay the $80 million price tag of I-1163? Its selfish, cavalier approach to the current budget crisis is unconscionable. Whose medical services will be eliminated to pay for I-1163? Whose school lunches do they intend to cut? Whose taxes do they intend to raise?
In addition to forcing a new program onto an unwilling state government, I-1163 will require significant new costs on long-term care, which will drive up the cost for residents. Nursing homes, adult family homes, and home care businesses will have to pay thousands of dollars per year to fund the union's new program. How many long-term care workers will lose their jobs? How many vulnerable adults will see the quality of their care diminished because long-term care centers are forced to cut costs to pay for new training they neither want nor need?
At a time when our state is facing the biggest financial challenge since the Great Depression, we can't justify a new $80 million program while cutting essential services to seniors and people with disabilities.
To preserve services for seniors and people with disabilities, the only responsible thing to do is vote "no" on I-1163.
Cindi Laws serves as the campaign chair of People Protecting Our Seniors - NO 1163 and the executive director of the Washington State Residential Care Council of Adult Family Homes. The People Protecting Our Seniors campaign includes organizations advocating for senior protection, disability rights, residential housing, long-term care, business and consumer advocates. The coalition members care for more than 500,000 seniors and people with disabilities in the state of Washington. For more information go to no1163.com.
