Welfare among hardest hit in budget

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Among the deepest cuts in Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget is $1.5 billion from CalWorks, the program that provides cash assistance and child care for the poor.

The cuts mean grants would be reduced by 13% and lifetime eligibility for the program, which also provides assistance to people who were formally unemployed and who are back to work, would drop from five years to four years.

Asked to name the most painful cuts to make, Brown cited the universities and CalWorks. “People have gotten off welfare and gotten a job, and we’re making their child care more difficult,” Brown said.

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed eliminating CalWorks last year, but legislators restored funding in the deal that closed last year’s historically drawn-out budget stalemate. A typical CalWorks grant for a single parent with two children is $500 per month, which is often supplemented by hundreds of dollars worth of federal food stamps.

-- Jack Dolan in Sacramento

READ THE DOCUMENT: “The complete text of Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget.”