Ohio Cuts Off Benefits for 106,000, Prompting Protest

Welfare benefits for more than 100,000 people in Ohio expired Wednesday, prompting about 400 people to demonstrate at the Statehouse in an effort to have the state budget cuts restored.

Gov. George V. Voinovich said he would hold firm on the cuts, but he appeared to be fighting back tears as he took reporters’ questions about the demonstration. “This governor cares. I’m doing the best I can,” he said.

Several of the demonstrators staged a sit-in at Voinovich’s office after the main rally broke up. Four people were arrested when they stayed past a police-imposed 6 p.m. deadline.

Welfare benefits also expired Wednesday in Illinois for at least 40,000 single, able-bodied people. No demonstrations were reported there.

Voinovich blamed Ohio’s cuts on what he called a $1.5-billion budget deficit inherited from the last Administration. He cautioned that the state’s fiscal condition remains critical and that more cuts may be necessary to eliminate a projected deficit of $575 million or more over the next 15 months.

The cuts limit general assistance recipients to six months of benefits each year. An initial 106,000 recipients were cut off Wednesday. Others will leave the rolls monthly as their six months of benefits end.

The law also reduces monthly benefits to $100 from $148, and ends general assistance medical benefits to all but the disabled.

Voinovich said a recently expanded, federally subsidized medical program for the poor would be a “safety net” for those who no longer have a general-assistance medical card.