Daniel Weintraub: Investing in Independence Is Good for All

Daniel Weintraub: Investing in Independence Is Good for All

Daniel Weintraub: Investing in Independence is Good for All

By Daniel Weintraub

Sacramento Bee, Forum section, Page E1

Sunday, June 4, 2006

Assemblyman Roger Niello, a conservative Republican from the suburbs of Sacramento, is always skeptical when he hears advocates touting studies that show a dollar spent here is going to save the taxpayers a bundle over there. More often than not, he says, such claims turn out to be exaggerated.

But last month, there was Niello, voting for a big increase in spending on a social program that he says is a can't-miss investment for taxpayers: employment help for the developmentally disabled. Niello backed an increase of almost 50 percent -- about $27 million -- to expand a service that helps create private-sector jobs for the disabled and then provides counselors to keep the clients employed, sometimes even supervising them at the work site.

"It's money spent now that avoids money being spent elsewhere," he says.

Niello's view was shaped in part by conversations with an unusual, bipartisan caucus of four lawmakers who have family members who are disabled. The legislators have been lobbying their colleagues and their leadership and recently had a session with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose own family by marriage -- the Kennedys -- has a long history of activism on behalf of the disabled.

Assemblywoman Barbara Matthews, a Democrat from Tracy, has a 45-year-old son who is developmentally disabled. Matthews said her son spent several years in a state hospital, and even when he was in the community, he did little until he got his first job -- in a pizza parlor. He has since worked at a number of fast-food restaurants, and the experience, she says, has changed his life.

"He's a great worker," Matthews said. "They love him. He's eager. He wants to do a good job. On the weekend he can't wait for Monday so he can go to work." Having a job, she said, gives his life meaning that it lacked before.

"He is an adult," she said. "He knows the difference. He wants to work like everybody else. He goes to work every day and he is proud of that."

Matthews says that she and the other lawmakers -- Democratic Assemblywomen Fran Pavley and Betty Karnette and Republican Assemblyman Russ Bogh -- have been able to use their personal contact with the program to make a compelling case that an increase in its budget would be money well spent. Disabled clients who are not employed are entitled to service from supervised day programs, which cost the state even more money.

Schwarzenegger has proposed a 3 percent increase for all programs for the developmentally disabled, included supported employment. Matthews says that's a great start but it's not enough to revive a service that has shriveled over the years from neglect, in good times and bad. The nonprofits that provide the jobs service have been running on essentially the same payment from the state for 20 years. They say it now costs them more to offer the service than they get from the state.

Diana DeRodeff, who runs InAlliance, a supported employment program in Sacramento, says her agency used to be able to recruit college graduates to the counseling jobs, which require someone who can approach private employers, sell them on the idea of hiring the disabled and then manage the client's employment with all the stress and complications that can involve. It takes a problem-solver who can communicate, use a computer, keep detailed notes and work independently in the field. The current salary: about $26,000 a year.

"That does not attract college graduates," she said.

As a result, there has been more turnover, and the people who are doing the job are stretched thin. They can't serve as many clients, or provide as much help to those they do serve. Private employers, most of whom are wary of the idea to begin with, have been less eager to participate because of the greater chance that problems will arise.

In the past few years, InAlliance has seen the number of disabled people it can keep employed drop from about 250 to about 150. Statewide, the number has dropped from 12,000 to 9,000. That's 3,000 more people collecting disability checks instead of paychecks, more people seeking service from government programs rather than serving others.

DeRodeff and other supporters of the program believe the increase they are seeking would turn those numbers around.

Given the billions the government spends on people who cannot or will not help themselves, investing a bit more on a group of people who are eager to work but need a bridge to employment so they can be more independent seems to be not only compassionate but a smart use of tax money as well.