Supervisors Balk at Plan for Home-Care Workers

The Board of Supervisors has voted unanimously to ask state legislators to reconsider the funding plan for a package that gives raises and health benefits for home-care workers.

The plan has been a sticking point since earlier this year, when Gov. Gray Davis proposed boosting home-care workers’ wages from $6.25 to $7.50 per hour, with health benefits. The workers--who provide at-home care to elderly and disabled people who might otherwise need to live in state facilities--would get an added $1-per-hour raise over each of the next four years.

But the raise package, which affects more than 72,000 Los Angeles County home-care workers, is contingent on the county’s footing part of the increase. Home-care workers are paid with a mix of county, state and federal funds. Under Davis’ proposal, the state would pay 65% of the non-federal cost of the increase, with the county picking up 35%. That formula would cost Los Angeles County $34.3 million.

County officials are resisting. “It’s just not going to happen. It’s a budget-buster,” Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said at the Tuesday board meeting.

The board voted to endorse a proposal by Yaroslavsky and Supervisor Gloria Molina to change the ratio to 80% from the state and 20% from the county. That would reduce the county’s cost to $12.4 million.

Yaroslavsky and Molina argued that, without the change, the state is placing an unfair burden on the county, which accounts for 42% of the state’s home-care patient caseload.