Governors Push Work-Welfare Proposal

The nation’s governors opened their annual conference here Saturday by urging Congress and the White House to adopt their mandatory work-welfare reform plan and pressing for similar programs to be established by the states.

Under the governors’ plan, initially proposed to President Reagan and key congressional leaders in February, all able-bodied welfare recipients except those with children under 3 years of age would be required to find work or enroll in education classes or job training to receive benefits.

In return, the government would try to find jobs for them and would provide medical insurance, child day care and other benefits as an interim step off welfare dependency.

The governors, pointing to the results of programs already in practice in a number of states, predict that their plan will reduce the welfare rolls. Currently, 3.7 million welfare parents collect $17 billion under the Aid to Families With Dependent Children.

The plan “contains the key elements that we believe will turn our welfare system into a meaningful pathway to self-sufficiency and independence,” said Gov. Michael N. Castle of Delaware, a Republican and chairman of the National Governors Assn.’s Task Force on Welfare Prevention.

Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Harold E. Ford (D-Tenn.) have introduced legislation in Congress that addresses many of the governors’ concerns, and President Reagan has endorsed portions of the plan.

The President, however, has his own welfare reform proposal, and he has said that he cannot support the governors’ call for increasing welfare payments by establishing a national standard for assistance. The cost of the governors’ proposal is estimated at $1 billion. Meanwhile, the House bill is projected to cost nearly $12 billion.

Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas, a Democrat and chairman of the governors’ association, said he hopes the organization, congressional representatives and White House officials present here can iron out many of their differences during the four-day conference.

“I think it would be unrealistic to think that we would leave here with a clear consensus,” he said, “but I think we can come a lot closer.”

He told a news conference: “Governors must act, but we do need some help from the federal government in order to do our jobs.”

More than half the nation’s states, struggling to decrease their welfare burden, have already adopted some form of work-related welfare--with varying degrees of success.

Gov. John H. Sununu of New Hampshire, a Republican, said welfare rolls in his state have been reduced by 40% since New Hampshire adopted a program a year ago. Massachusetts and Illinois report similar success.

California, however, marks the one-year anniversary of its $93-million Greater Avenues for Independence program this month with mixed results. In Fresno County, one of 14 counties that pioneered the GAIN program, far fewer recipients have been removed from the welfare rolls and placed into jobs than had been predicted.

Only 278 people have been placed in jobs, compared to the 817 predicted, according to the Department of Social Services. And only 90 have received training, compared to initial estimates of 864.

The cost of the program is expected to grow to $265.9 million in the next fiscal year.

In the most comprehensive study to date, Manpower Demonstration Corp. in New York, in a review of programs in five states, found that such programs reduced welfare rolls by an additional 3% to 9%.

“The programs are effective,” said Judith Gueron, president of Manpower, “but they are not a panacea.”

Delaware’s Castle agrees. “The most effective contribution to welfare reform is an economy that is working,” he said.