| Go
Back
May 20,
2002 Alert #5
Executive
Director’s Column
Families on Welfare Need Our Help
While legislators in Sacramento deal with California’s looming
budget crisis (see article below), policymakers in our nation’s
capitol are moving swiftly to reauthorize the Temporary Assistance
to Needy Families (TANF) program, better known as welfare reform.
The House of Representatives acted last week by passing a bill that
resembles President’s Bush’s welfare reform proposal,
including stagnant funding levels and more stringent work requirements
for families moving off the welfare rolls. The good news out of
the House was an additional $2 billion that was added at the last
minute for child care to help low income families.
The debate now moves to the U.S. Senate, where California Senators
Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein will play important roles in the
final shape of the Senate’s welfare-related legislative package.
Here are key issues that need to be considered:
Allow education to be counted as a “work activity”:
Education can be a viable path for recipients to move off the caseload
and into self-sustaining employment. Recent research by the Chancellor’s
Office of the California Community College System finds that the
earnings of welfare recipients increase substantially in the year
after receiving a certificate or degree. Education must count as
a legitimate ”work activity” as recipients prepare to
leave the welfare rolls.
Make time limits more flexible: Stopping the 5-year federal time
limit clock for families who are working part time and playing by
the rules in making their way off of welfare makes sense and should
be a part of the reauthorization package.
Restore benefits for immigrants: TANF eligibility to recent legal
immigrants should be granted, or states should be given the option
of providing benefits on their own.
Make poverty reduction an explicit TANF purpose: Congress can use
TANF reauthorization to communicate to the public, recipients, and
states what the goals and priorities of welfare reform will be over
the next several years. Making poverty reduction an explicit purpose
of TANF will emphasize the need to improve family economic well
being, not just move families off the caseload.
If you have not already done so, please write Senators Boxer and
Feinstein as soon as possible and encourage them to support a welfare
reform bill that includes the elements mentioned above.
--Scott Anderson
Governor Gray Davis’
May Budget Revision
On May 14 Governor Gray Davis issued his revised 2002-2003 budget
in light of the current fiscal crisis of the state. Health and Human
Services suffered the single largest block of cuts followed closely
by spending reductions for education.
Because California forbids deficit spending, the Governor must close
the $23.6 billion gap that has occurred due to a decline in the
general economy, tax losses from reductions in capital gains and
stock markets, general personal income reductions, and layoffs in
the workforce. The crisis will parallel that of 1990 and, like that
crisis, this one will also span several years.
Nearly one-third of deficit reduction comes from spending cuts,
and very little is from revenue increases. The major cuts are going
to come from programs for those on low and fixed incomes and include:
Health Care: Medi-Cal will be cut by $1.1 billion. This will include
reducing adult eligibility to shrink participation and will eliminate
adult enrollment in Healthy Families programs for two-parent families;
cutting of all “optional” services including those for
psychological rehabilitation, medical equipment, dental care for
all adults and similar services for children; and reducing provider
reimbursements that will drive doctors and hospitals out of the
Medi-Cal program With 6.2 million people already uninsured, these
cuts will provide millions with no access to health care at all.
Social Services: While several programs such as CalWORKS that directs
people from welfare to work survive due to federal mandates, others
would not. County administration services for CalWORKS, foster care,
food stamps, and other programs would be slashed. The budget mandates
that social service recipients make out quarterly rather than annual
eligibility reports so that if they make errors or fail to file,
they would be automatically eliminated. State cost-of-living-adjustments
would be eliminated for those receiving social security and disability
and monthly supplementary payments would be frozen for couples and
reduced for single recipients. Only federal increases of $9 and
$15 per month for singles or couples would remain.
Education. Programs designed to encourage outreach from colleges
and universities to K-12 students will be reduced. Over $1.1 billion
in spending needed to finish this school year will be deferred to
the start of the new fiscal year, making a huge cut in this year’s
school budgets.
Revenue enhancements in terms of reallocation of income include
dipping into the Tobacco Settlement funds now – leaving them
unavailable for the future – and partially rolling back the
cut in the Vehicle License Fee (VLF). No new income taxes or tax
rates are proposed for this budget crisis.
In sum, with the VLF rollback as the only new revenue source, payable
by the poor as well as the wealthy, the majority of budget solutions
are being born by those least able to find alternatives to the costs
and consequences of these decisions.
What You Can Do
About California’s Budget Crisis
SB 1255 by Senator John Burton (D-San Francisco) is the “trigger”
bill to reinstate higher tax levels on the top 2 percent of high-income
Californians. The phase-in of the 10 and 11 percent tax rates would
be for single people earning $130,000 and above or couples earning
$260,000 and above. Senator Burton’s bill also makes clear
that this is a temporary tax rollback to pre-cut levels only to
meet the needs of the state during the budget crisis. It is estimated
that the revenue generated from this reinstatement of the original
tax rates would generate $1.8 billion that could be directed toward
health and human services to ease the proposed cuts in the governor’s
budget.
California Church IMPACT is supporting SB 1255 as a means of distributing
the burden of this crisis to all members of our society. We strongly
urge you to write to Senator Burton and your State Senators, Assemblymembers,
and Governor Davis expressing support for this temporary measure.
It is only equitable and fair that we all have a role in helping
the state through these difficult years.
Global Warming Issue Heats Up
AB 1058 by Assemblymember Fran Pavely (D-Agoura Hills) directs the
Air Resources Board to monitor and regulate all greenhouse gasses
that contribute to glob al warming. Increased environmental temperatures
add to California’s energy costs for cooling, to water use
for hyrdroelectric power, and to health consequences especially
for the elderly and very young.
The opposition to AB 1058 has been fierce. Automobile manufacturers
and dealers have run full-page newspaper ads and radio spots stating
inaccurately that this bill will ban SUVs and trucks and will force
Californians to pay huge gasoline taxes or use taxes for their larger
vehicles. AB 1058 does neither. It simply directs the Air Resources
Board to monitor the air and determine what gasses are contributing
to glob al warming. The ARB then may direct a reduction in greenhouse
gasses, but equipment for those reductions already exists and is
part of American auto manufacturing standards.
AB 1058 is supported by a wide variety of faith, environmental,
and business groups that understand how serious increased global
warming is to the health of the economy as well as of people. AB
1058 is now pending on the floor of the State Assembly. Please write
your Assembly member in support of AB 1058.
|
