Welfare Reform: A Devastating Blow to Counties
by
James T. Beall,Jr.

Welfare "reform" is a euphemism for destroying one of our
government's most fundamental poverty programs. As the administrators of
welfare in California, counties collectively shudder at the impacts the
proposed legislation will have on our system of delivering welfare — and
ultimately, on our society.
By utilizing block grants, the federal government proposes to pass
welfare's administrative functions, along with a lump sum of aid, on to states
and local governments. Counties relish the opportunity to have more
control over welfare: we welcome the discretion to develop programs
appropriate to our own communities. What we cannot ignore about this
proposal is that block grants have historically not kept pace with either need
or the cost of living. For high-cost, urban counties such as Santa Clara, this
portends the shutdown of our welfare system. What Washington fails to (or
is unwilling to) recognize is that simply cutting welfare spending will not cut
the need for welfare. And counties, charged as the "provider of last resort,"
will be left to pick up the pieces.
Advocates of welfare reform state that recipients "just need to go get a
job." Here is why that simple solution is not really a solution at all:
nationwide, 9 million out of 13 million welfare recipients are children. In
Santa Clara County, almost three-fourths of our AFDC population is children.
Those fighting for welfare reform have been successful in framing the debate
around the issue of responsibility. I believe we must turn this question
around and ask, must children be held responsible for the errors or
shortcomings of their parents?

Furthermore, as a state with a high immigrant population, California's
wounds have not yet healed from the political battle over Proposition 187 last
November. We are now being asked to deny legal immigrants — taxpaying
members of our community — welfare and related services. In Santa Clara
County alone, as many as 23,000 families on AFDC,Food Stamps and MediCal will no longer by eligible for benefits. Without access to welfare, these
individuals will merely turn to county government for access to health
services and General Assistance, which is 100% county funded. There is no
savings to the taxpayer in this proposal — only a redirection of spending from
the federal to the county level.

Perhaps the biggest flaw of the proposed welfare reform legislation is
that it fails to address one of the key problems of our current system: a lack of
jobs that pay a living wage. Without an adequate supply of jobs, welfare

recipients have no viable options to help them get off the system. At this
critical juncture. Congress also recently passed measures eliminating or
substantially reducing job training programs. As California struggles to
recover from our recent economic downturn, I believe government officials
must be highly sensitive to the needs of local businesses. Instead, asking
business to absorb additional individuals, who may be lacking in education or
training, into the work force at this time creates a no-win situation.

To county government, welfare reform represents a mishmash of
illogical programmatic decisions and unjust social policy. As a member of the
Board of Supervisors, I cannot and will not let our poor and vulnerable
populations fall through the cracks because those at the federal level are
unwilling to continue the necessary support. Counties do not deny the need
to change our system. We just want "reform" that lives up to the meaning of
the word.

James T. Beall, Jr. is a member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
and is Co-Chair of the California State Association of Counties' Health and
Human

(613)

Services

Committee.