Officials to Lobby Against Welfare Plan

Ventura County officials will travel to the nation’s capital this week to lobby Congress against adopting a package that would transfer most authority over welfare spending to the states.

County Supervisor John Flynn, Social Service Agency Director James Isom and Personnel Director Ron Komers will participate in four days of meetings with members of the Senate, pointing out what they believe is wrong with the changes being proposed, officials said.

The legislation, crafted and passed by the House of Representatives, would turn authority over cash assistance, foster care, child care and school meal programs to the states, Isom said. For the first time, many benefits would be based on the behavior of recipients.

One provision, for instance, would deny cash assistance to unwed mothers younger than 18, he said. States also would be forbidden to increase benefits when families on welfare have additional children.

Isom said county officials support welfare reform, but they believe new legislation needs to provide job training and child care to help recipients make the transition to work.

“The House bill is punitive,” Isom said. “It cuts out everything. It punishes children.”

Isom said the county’s welfare agency has a $128-million annual budget, with most of the money coming from federal grants. If the current package is passed, he said, the federal government would send the grant money to the states, which would distribute it to the counties.

Isom said officials are worried that in this scenario, the county would lose money, which could leave more people without help. The number of people in the county who received some form of welfare last year was 92,619, more than triple 1988’s number.

“I don’t think it’s constructive to treat people who are down and out like they don’t exist,” Isom said.