Supervisors Balk at Plan for Home-Care Workers
- Share via
LOS ANGELES — 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.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
John Orr was a renowned fire investigator who was also a prolific arsonist, and whose thinly veiled novel helped to convict him. In this episode we hear from the fire captain who first suspected him—and from Orr himself.
Madison McGhee is joined by legendary Dateline host Josh Mankiewicz and esteemed L.A. Times Reporter Richard Winton as the three of them dive into all-things Menendez Brothers, the good, the bad, and the still unknown.
NPR climate editor Sadie Babits talks about why the media has long overlooked the climate crisis, and how that’s starting to change.
