January
27, 2017
To
the Honorable Members of
The
Illinois Senate,
99th
General Assembly:
Today I
veto Senate Bill 261 from the 99th General Assembly, which amends the Illinois Rehabilitation
of Persons with Disabilities Act to remove the state’s ability to place any
limit on the number of weekly hours a provider of home care services may work.
Each
physically disabled resident in the taxpayer-funded Home Service Program is
provided a service plan that includes a certain number of hours for in-home
care. This care is provided by individual providers and is based on the personal
circumstances and level of need of each person in the program. The total number
of hours in a resident’s service plan varies, with some high-need individuals
requiring as much as 80, 90, or even more than 100 hours of care each week.
In
response to a recent ruling by the United States Department of Labor that
requires payment of time-and-a-half for each hour worked over 40 hours, the Illinois
Department of Human Services (IDHS) has attempted to reasonably address the overtime
being worked by individual providers—taking into account both the safety of participants
in the program and the need to manage the significant increase in costs
resulting from this ruling.
IDHS’ proposed
policy to address overtime is not yet in force, but rather proceeding through
the normal process overseen by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules
(JCAR)—the legislative body tasked with reviewing rules issued by state agencies.
Notably, the proposed policy incorporates many of the concerns and suggestions
provided by stakeholders across the home services community. Specifically, the policy:
(i) permits overtime in the appropriate circumstances, (ii) safeguards
individual providers from being unnecessarily overworked, (iii) ensures that
residents with extensive service plans will have more than one person who understands
their needs and who is capable of caring for them, and (iv) allows the
state to put reasonable limits on the amount of overtime individuals providers
may work.
Despite
addressing many of the concerns raised by stakeholders, and doing so through
the legislatively-sanctioned JCAR process, Senate Bill 261 prohibits the state
from placing any limit whatsoever on the number of weekly hours worked by
individual providers. This legislation will result in many individual providers
working unlimited hours on insufficient rest, will place many customers at risk
of receiving inadequate care from a single, exhausted individual provider, and
will drive up costs that will result in cuts to this program or others.
As stewards
of the Home Services Program, the state must protect the safety of our
residents, as well as the long-term sustainability of the program. The state
has a responsibility to contain rising costs so that future participants will
also have access to the services of this critical program. Therefore, pursuant
to Section 9(b) of Article IV of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I hereby
return Senate Bill 261, entitled “AN ACT concerning employment”, with the
foregoing objections, vetoed in its entirety.
Sincerely,
Bruce
Rauner
GOVERNOR