Governor, Democrats in Accord on Workfare : Roberti Confident of Passing Landmark Bill for Child Care and Recipients of Welfare

Gov. George Deukmejian and key Democratic lawmakers agreed during the final hours of the 1985 legislative session Friday on a landmark package that would put welfare recipients to work and provide child care for working parents.

Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), who previously had stalled the controversial workfare bill, expressed confidence that both it and the working parent subsidies he demanded would be pushed through the Legislature before it recessed for the year on Friday night.

Anticipating victory, Roberti exclaimed: “It’s historic. The state has embarked on child care for working women. That may be remembered longer than workfare.”

However, some liberal Democrats philosophically opposed to the idea of forcing welfare recipients to work attempted late Friday night to run out the clock before the package could be sent to the governor.

At a last-minute hearing of the Senate Human Services Committee--the first time the workfare proposal had been debated publicly in the Senate--Chairwoman Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) lashed out at Roberti for forcing her to hold the hastily called meeting so the workfare bill could be approved.

“It is highly unusual that such a substantial issue as workfare has to be rushed through in the last hours,” said Watson, a longtime opponent of workfare. “But since all the rules were waived, we will proceed with this charade.”

After days of intense negotiations, Deukmejian and Roberti devised a plan that both liberals and conservatives could support by linking two programs rejected in previous years: mandatory work for welfare recipients and child-care aid for working parents.

“We feel that we have a satisfactory agreement,” said Deukmejian’s press secretary, Larry Thomas.

At times Friday, the compromise was snagged by the opposition of conservative Assembly Republi cans, who were concerned about the proposed amount of money to be spent on child care.

However, after persuasion by Deukmejian’s staff, the Assembly Republicans agreed to accept the compromise.

“We’ve reached agreement and it’s a good one,” said Assembly GOP Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale. “If the Democrats insist on all this heavy front-end spending, that’s the price we have to pay.

Under the workfare plan, passed last month by the Assembly and stymied after that in the Senate, able-bodied welfare recipients with children over the age of 6 would be required to work for up to a year, take job training or go to school.

But unlike past workfare proposals that liberals considered “punitive,” this plan has won the support of many Democrats because it would place emphasis on preparing welfare recipients for permanent jobs.

Supporters of the bill, authored by liberal Assemblyman Art Agnos (D-San Francisco) and conservative Assemblyman Ernie Konnyu (R-Saratoga), said it would be the most significant overhaul of the welfare system in more than a decade.

It even carried the solid support of liberal Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco).

Increase Assistance

The child-care element added in the last compromise would increase the amount of assistance to welfare parents who take part in workfare. And it would provide state aid for the first time to care for “latchkey” children--those left unattended while their parents are at work.

The compromise would provide $36 million in state funds for the development of new child-care centers that would be open to children from families of all income levels. This was demanded by Roberti in the hope of ensuring that welfare children would be integrated with children from working families.

When the program is fully operational in five years, $134 million would be availble to reimburse high-priority families--including those participating in workfare, those who recently got off welfare and those with low incomes.

Priority for placement in the centers would also go to abused and neglected children.

Families with incomes too high to qualify for reimbursement would pay the full cost of enrolling their children in the centers, which would be administered by the state Department of Education.

‘Sincere Program’

Agnos, a key architect of the workfare plan and a participant in the child-care negotiations, said of the compromise: “It’s what the poverty program should have looked like in the 1960s.

“Poor people will be the beneficiaries of the first sincere and meaningful program in the history of our state to help people get off welfare, out of poverty and into employment.”

Politicians of both parties, who are preparing for their 1986 reelection campaigns, presumably also would benefit from the package.

Workfare has long been one of Deukmejian’s top priorities, and its enactment would provide the Republican governor with one of the few major legislative victories of his Administration.

By giving Deukmejian a work fare bill after blocking such proposals for years, the Democrats would enable the governor to bolster his campaign platform with a significant accomplishment.

At the same time, many Democratic lawmakers could defuse the workfare issue in their districts, where many believe that they have been hurt politically by repeatedly blocking such legislation.

The Democrats also could claim credit for aiding latchkey children--a program that Roberti maintains is even more popular among voters than workfare.

Roberti’s child-care bill is similar to one the governor vetoed last year.