In a victory for struggling homecare workers, the Obama Administration ruled last week that California's proposed cuts to the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program violates the terms of the federal stimulus aid going to the state under the terms of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Citing a $40 billion budget deficit, California legislators passed a budget in February containing $1 billion in "trigger cuts," which included cutting a sizable chunk of funding to the IHSS program, which provides vital services that allow the elderly and people with disabilities to receive care in their homes--instead of being forced into nursing homes or institutions. California legislators voted to slice the state's contribution toward homecare worker wages by a staggering 20 percent, lowering the state's contribution from $11.50 to $9.50 per hour. The cuts were scheduled to go into effect on July 1, 2009.
However, SEIU refused to take these cuts lying down and requested a second opinion from Obama's Department of Health and Human Services, saying the wage reductions violate provisions of the ARRA. The Obama administration agreed--and in a ruling last week, notified Schwarzenegger's office that California's cuts to state funding for IHSS are out of compliance with the requirements of the federal Recovery Act for receiving enhanced Medicaid funding.
This ruling is a major victory for California's 250,000 IHSS workers and the 440,000 seniors and people with disabilities who rely on IHSS for daily care. However, the fight's not over yet: the Obama administration is now threatening to rescind billions of dollars in federal stimulus money if Gov. Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers approved in February as part of the budget. "The Obama Administration has made it clear that the State cannot cut the homecare workers' wages. Now we need our counties to follow suit and take all the cuts off the table," said SEIU Executive VP Eliseo Medina.
