A group of workers with disabilities will get to keep their jobs in Traverse City – for now. Grand Traverse Industries plans to pay the salaries of up to 20 workers out of their own pocket – instead of laying them off.
Funding for those workers used to come from the state – but was eliminated during the expansion of Medicaid.Steve Perdue, the president of Grand Traverse Industries, says it’s important to make sure this group of people has jobs.
“These jobs are what they get up in the morning for,” Perdue says. “To earn a paycheck, to come to work at GTI. Without the job they really would have nothing, no other activity.”
Perdue says the cuts were inadvertent.
The state used to use general fund dollars to pay for Grand Traverse Industries to employ people with disabilities. But after the state expanded Medicaid, lawmakers figured the increase in those dollars would offset any cuts they made to the general fund.
However, not all workers with disabilities qualify for Medicaid.
Perdue says about 20 workers lost funding from the state, but they won’t lose their jobs right now. GTI plans to pay for these people for the next three months at least. Most of their workers continue to be supported by Medicaid.
Perdue says he’s looking for ways to fund the group of workers in the long term. State lawmakers could pass a supplemental bill to make up for the cuts.