Disabled-care workers would feel Md. state budget pinch

Washington County providers of services for the developmentally disabled would feel the pinch of a 2 percent across-the-board budget reduction to Maryland state agencies that a state board approved this week.

The reduction is part of a plan to cover a $410 million budget shortfall. It would cut in half a 4 percent increase in funds for developmental disability community services for this fiscal year that the Maryland General Assembly passed last year.

Troy Van Scoyoc, executive director of The ARC of Washington County, said that they had been expecting possible cuts since the release of the 2015 budget deficit projection but hoped it would not impact disability services.

But Van Scoyoc said that officials will not know what will happen for sure until Gov.-elect Larry Hogan submits his 2015 budget.

"If it does happen, it happens on the backs of some of the most crucial citizens of Maryland," he said.

The cuts would keep the Arc from having the funding to increase salaries for the agency's workers who provide support for those with developmental disabilities, he said.

As a result, with the state minimum wage increasing, eventually reaching $10.10 an hour in five years, entry-level workers often would barely make above minimum wage.

Some entry-level workers make about $10.50 an hour, he said.

Van Scoyoc said that the goal is to have about a 30 percent difference between minimum-wage salaries and the salaries of disability-service workers.

"The funding to agencies like ours has chronically been underfunded, and as a result, the folks who provide support to individuals with developmental disabilities have chronically been underpaid," he said. "Folks like myself and people that work in agencies like ours just feel pretty strongly that those positions should not be minimum-wage jobs."

Dallas Hopkins, executive director of Star Community Inc., said that they are facing the same problem, noting that the 4 percent increase approved last year for such organizations was to raise the salaries of staff members to offset the minimum-wage increase.

"Our individuals and direct support staff professionals, they have about 20 areas of training," he said. "All these different trainings we have to have for our staff before they can go into a home. So it's so important that we compensate them for the professional-level job that they have, and by reducing this rate, it makes it nearly impossible to raise salaries."

Hopkins said that the cut will result in his organization receiving roughly $47,000 less than expected. That would not result in a reduction in any services provided to individuals with disabilities, but he noted that the staff members who would not see a pay raise are skilled workers.

"We're dealing with people's lives every day. We are administering medications that if they aren't given, and they aren't given properly, it could cause a real health concern for that individual, could put them in the hospital. So, there's a lot of pressure on this staff to perform every day," Hopkins said.

"There are individuals that have to be trained with behaviors to know how to de-escalate a behavior, so that it doesn't hurt another individual within the home," he said.

Van Scoyoc said that turnover already is high in the developmental disability-care field, and limiting salary increases could make it more difficult to recruit and keep workers.

"These are very, very challenging jobs, and we need skilled employees," he said. "It's going to make it more difficult for us to recruit folks, if we are not able to keep their pay above minimum wage."

However, he said they are still waiting to see what happens with the budget.

"I'm not a doomsday kind of guy," he said. "This is very distressing to us, but we'll wait and see what comes when the new governor takes office."