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Providers warn governor’s budget cuts would deepen workforce crisis for disability waiver services
Summary
Trade groups and nonprofit providers told the House Human Services Committee the governor’s proposal to cap inflationary rate adjustments and other limits would reduce wages, force closures and cut roughly $600 million from disability waiver services over four years.
Chair Rep. Fue Lee's Human Services Committee heard nearly three hours of public testimony warning that the governor’s budget proposal for human services would destabilize disability waiver services and the workforce that provides them.
Johnny Tvets, policy manager for ARM, a trade association representing disability waiver residential providers, told the committee that the proposal to “cap inflationary adjustments at 2%” would “exacerbate an already dire workforce crisis.” He said direct support professionals, “who are a majority women and people of color,” earn about $17 per hour and that the cap would “further erode their wages.”
The concern was echoed by Sarah Grafstrom, senior director of state and federal policy for ARM, who described local…
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