Vulnerable hurt
Here’s the 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 a reduction in prescription drug coverage. In-home care services, which allow low-income 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 DSHS already this year, affecting children, the mentally ill, and the working poor. Other areas of the state budget were slashed as well, including education and prisons staffing.
Less than four months after the legislative session ended, state agencies were ordered to prepare additional 10 percent cutbacks to address the latest shortfall. 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 dangerous mentally ill patients into the community, where there are no corrections officers or social workers to provide a safety net — because those positions have also been eliminated. Why? Because the state has no money.
SEIU doesn’t care. SEIU did not include a revenue source — a tax — in I-1163 because if they had, the initiative would fail. But SEIU is fixating on the elimination of the sales-tax exemption for out-of-state shoppers, which would have a devastating impact on border communities such as Vancouver and Clark County. SEIU does not care, as long as taxpayers are forced to pay for the training, and time-paid-for-training, for their 40,000 union members.
In addition to forcing a new program onto an unwilling state government, I-1163 will require significant new costs on long-term care, driving up the cost for all residents. Nursing homes, adult family homes, assisted living facilities and home care businesses will have to pay thousands of dollars more per year for this training program.