Good Things Keep Happening Here

I saw in an update from the Maine House of Representatives that LD 1364 had been signed by the governor and passed into law. It came as a surprise.

LD 1364 An Act to Stimulate the Economy by Expanding Opportunities for Direct Care Support Aides was signed by Governor Baldacci on March 25th.

Click on the link and you'll see at the bottom of the page, "PUBLIC Law, Chapter 546." Click on any of the document links to see the text.

From the last work session I was at with 1364, I thought it was dead in the water.

Representative Matt Peterson was successful!

The original standard worker wage of $12 per hour was completely removed from the original bill, as was the language about standard reimbursement rates for all providers of personal assistance services. This language was removed because of the problems with the state budget.

What is in the bill is language defining "direct support aide", setting up the plan for developing direct support aide employment opportunities, and then setting up the multi-departmental oversight entity or advisory board to be responsible for and have authority to "implement and provide ongoing oversight and recommendations regarding direct support aide employment policies..."

This is some of the ideas and recommendations coming out of the Worker Taskforce that is a subset of the LEAN, our ideas and recommendations!

I think this may be a step in the right direction.

We'll have to keep an eye on DHHS to see if that work group does get put together.

We keep making small strides.

I thanked Elise Scala, from the Muskie School, for all her input with the worker taskforce and showing us how the current worker classification, or should I say, alphabet soup, is set up. To me, that was an extremely valuable presentation, a real eye opener. We have too many titles for the same core skills and supports we provide each and every day.