Mike Salsbury/The Olympian
Social service advocate Sylvia Fuerstenberg (left) joins Rep. Laura Ruderman, D-Kirkland, for a news conference Tuesday promoting the use of a pension surplus to create an endowment supporting improved long-term caregiver wages.

Lawmakers rally behind caregiver raise

Plan uses pension fund surplus to start endowment fund

BRAD SHANNON, THE OLYMPIAN

OLYMPIA -- House Democrats are rallying behind a new proposal for getting pay raises of 50 cents an hour into the pockets of those who provide care in nursing homes or through home health care.

The proposal -- offered as an alternative to a Senate plan to spend surplus money from a law-enforcement pension-fund surplus -- would instead put the surplus into an endowment, letting interest earnings pay for part of the raise.

"It's a great idea," said House Co-Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, noting that it would generate extra money that would be matched dollar-for-dollar with federal Medicare money. "It doubles the money and is sustainable."

Chopp and other Democratic lawmakers joined caregiver advocates on the state library steps early Tuesday to show support for those who provide care to the elderly, sick and developmentally disabled.

The Senate's proposed use of a one-time windfall for an ongoing program cost has drawn strong opposition from both House budget writers, Democratic Rep. Helen Sommers and Republican Rep. Barry Sehlin.

"The problem has always been how are we going to fund it given the terrible financial situation the state is facing," said Jerry Reilly, executive director for the Washington Health Care Association, a trade group for nursing homes. Reilly likes the Senate plan, but knowing it's in political trouble, he's pushing the endowment concept as a backup.

"Number one, it meets a profound need. Two, it is sustainable ..., and three, the funds generate federal matching dollars," Reilly said.

Several lawmakers, including Reps. Laura Ruderman, D-Kirkland, Jeannie Darneille, D-Tacoma, and Carolyn Edmonds, D-Shoreline, stood with Reilly and state Long-Term Care Ombudsman Kary Hyre and others in support of the endowment alternative -- if the Senate plan doesn't win acceptance.

Putting $500 million of the pension surplus into an endowment could generate more than $25 million a year in interest, which would be equal to $100 million per two-year budget cycle once Medicaid money was added, Reilly said. This could pay for most of the 50 cents per hour raise sought for workers who, in many cases, earn $7 an hour or less.

A crisis in care is looming due to high turnover in caregivers, fueled partly by low wages, in an industry that serves 63,000 people statewide, Hyre said. "It's very harmful to residents, so harmful that some facilities have shut down," Hyre said.

Turnover is 75 percent annually for King County private-sector providers who contract with the state to care for the developmentally disabled, said Sylvia Fuerstenberg, a social worker with the private firm S.L. START and Associates. "When you lose three of four caregivers that provide for you in a year, it's devastating," Fuerstenberg said.

Advocates have fought an uphill battle to win money for their cause in the midst of the state's budget crisis, but Ruderman said she hasn't heard from anyone who opposes an increase in raising what the state pays vendors to provide care.

"I haven't talked to a member yet who doesn't like it," she said of the endowment plan. "It's creative. It's sustainable. It's efficient."

Brad Shannon, political editor for The Olympian, can be reached at 753-1688 and at shannonbrad@hotmail.com.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

back to main Legislature 2001 index