Nebraska Care Providers Claim State Hypocrisy

NATE JENKINS

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Pay at some state-funded programs where people with mental disabilities are cared for in Nebraska is so low that McDonald's workers make a higher hourly wage.

"Why would you work here?" said Linda Redfern, director of the Scottsbluff-based Region I Office of Human Development. Overseen by elected county officials, the office provides day and round-the-clock residential services to 190 people in 11 Panhandle counties.

Redfern and others across the state who help people with developmental disabilities likely won't have a better answer to that question again next year if Gov. Dave Heineman's budget-cutting plan is approved by lawmakers. Those who care for the developmentally disabled say his plan to ax previously approved, state-funded pay hikes next year for people who care for people with mental disabilities could keep them from expanding at the same time state officials say they want to move more people out of institutions and into the programs.

The plan is part of his wide-ranging proposal to shave $334 million from the two-year state budget over the next couple weeks during a special legislative session called to respond to drooping state revenues.