MPBN: Welfare Reform to be Key Issue in Upcoming Maine Legislative Session

By Mal Leary

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Among the changes being proposed by the LePage administration in the new year is a welfare reform package. The plan unveiled today in Augusta, would focus on general assistance. Meanwhile, House GOP Leader Ken Fredette is proposing his own changes to another welfare program. Mal Leary has our report.

Rep. Fredette, the House Republican floor leader from Newport, wants a new requirement: that Mainers seeking cash benefits under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program – or TANF – must have applied for a job to be eligible for those benefits. He says it’s a common sense approach used in many other states.

“It says that if you are able-bodied and you’re seeking cash welfare benefits, then show us that you’ve looked for work first,” Fredette says. “Essentially what that bill does is if you are going in and you’re looking for TANF benefits, it says you need to also, as part of your application, show that you have been out trying to find a job. It’s part of the application process. Nineteen other states already do this.”

Currently, welfare recipients must show that they’re looking for a job to continue receiving benefits. Fredette’s proposed bill would require that they show three job application attempts to simply qualify. Fredette told reporters he hopes Democrats will work with him on the bill.

But in a statement, House Speaker Mark Eves, a Democrat from North Berwick, criticized the measure. And state Sen. Emily Cain, a Democrat from Orono who serves on the Appropriations Committee, characterized the GOP plan as a bad idea.

“When people come to TANF it is because they are in a crisis,” Cain says. “To put barriers up like apply for a job before that individual or family can be stabilized is asking for them to fail.”

Chris Hastedt of Maine Equal Justice Partners, a low income advocacy group, says lawmakers just passed several changes aimed at helping those on TANF find employment.

“Help them identify the kinds of jobs that are appropriate for them, help them identify the kinds of services they need to be employed,” Hastedt says. “That is the prescription for insuring that people will actually find a job that will support that family. This proposal, in our view, is just antithetical to that.”

There were about 21,000 TANF cases on the books in August, including more than 13,000 children. The average cash benefit for all individuals receiving TANF is approximately $150 a month. As part of the Office of Policy and Management report aimed at finding nearly $34 million in savings, the LePage administration is proposing to change the general assistance program that provides cash benefits through cities and towns. Richard Rosen is director of OPM.

“Municipalities will be required to match their state allocation dollar for dollar, and will be subject to a department audit to confirm their use of funds is in compliance with statue,” Rosen said. “This should make the system more equitable and reduce the rate of GA growth within service center communities.”

The proposal immediately drew fire from members of the Appropriations Committee, who say the plan would shift costs to local property taxpayers. Rep. Mike Carey, a Democrat from Lewiston, says the proposal is a rehash of past ideas that have already been rejected by the Legislature.

“The concern about this particular initiative is that it feels like it’s the same initiative that was in the governor’s first two supplemental budgets and in the last biennial budget,” Carey says. “So this just, again, feels like a rehash of an idea that has been set aside by bipartisan Legislatures two different times.”

Gov. LePage says he will be proposing further changes to the state’s welfare programs. Democrats say they will evaluate them as they are introduced, but expect that many of the ideas have been floated, and rejected, before.