Key Aspects of Wilson Welfare Plan Rejected

Assembly Democrats voted down the major elements of Gov. Pete Wilson’s welfare reform plan Tuesday, shattering the already tenuous hope that the state’s historic overhaul of its social safety net might compel bipartisan unity.

The governor’s plan could still be resurrected by a special conference committee assigned to consider welfare reform. Elements of his plan are also contained in bills now pending before the Senate.

But the Assembly action--the first major legislative votes on welfare reform so far this year--is an important setback for Wilson.

The governor’s allies had hoped Democrats would make a gesture of bipartisanship by passing the governor’s legislation on to the next level. Instead, the Assembly Human Services Committee voted along party lines to strike the governor’s proposed time limits on welfare, the work requirements he planned for recipients and the program he intended to substitute for the Aid to Families With Dependent Children benefit.

“As I sit here and listen, I am struck by a fundamental different view we have of reality,” a frustrated Assemblyman Jim Battin (R-La Quinta) told the committee just before it considered the bill he carried for Wilson.

“To say that we are going to make people poor with this bill is just wrong,” Battin said. “The single worst thing we can do to people is to make them dependent on government largess.”

For their part, Democrats intended their votes to send a clear message of their reaction to Wilson’s plan.

“It has a paucity of heart,” said Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), the Assembly’s speaker pro tem. “It has a paucity of realistic application.”

Tuesday’s vote was touted as a curtain raiser for an imminent battle as the Legislature enters the final month before its self-imposed deadline to complete a legislative package on welfare reform.

Already long-simmering tensions over welfare and related issues have begun to surface throughout the Capitol.

At a hearing on the child care provisions of welfare reform earlier in the day, state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), stormed out after more than an hour of testimony criticizing her position.

“I have heard enough!” she exclaimed. “What do you want us to do, throw more money at it? We don’t have that kind of money. What you have to understand is that we have to do it a different way. And a room full of people like this is not going to solve child care.” Wright is co-chairwoman of a special subcommittee on the child care aspects of welfare reform.

A group of Assembly Republicans began the day by holding a news conference to urge that Democrats provide a “full and fair hearing” for the GOP plan. They were not surprised, however, when the legislation was stripped.

“We had hopes they were actually serious that they were willing to work in a bipartisan manner,” Battin said later. “This showed their words are just hollow.”

Democrats insisted that although they could not support the governor’s plan, their action was an attempt to preserve a Republican voice in the process.

Instead of killing the legislation, they noted that the gutted bills were allowed to proceed with the chance that new language could be added at another level.

Ron Gray, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante (D-Fresno), said Democrats offered to delay consideration of the bills Tuesday in hopes of working out differences before they were heard. He said that offer was rejected.

“Everything is still on the table at this point,” said Hans Hemann, spokesman for Assemblywoman Dion Aroner (D-Berkeley), who chaired Tuesday’s meeting. “We wanted to be able to move their pieces of legislation along and keep them alive so they could be part of the discussion. But there were pieces in their existing bills that some of the Democrats could not vote for.”

Wilson had pressured the committee to advance his proposals during an event on welfare reform he staged Monday. On Tuesday, however, he chalked up the vote to an early round in the process.

“Today’s action is an initial skirmish in what is expected to be a long, intense discussion with the Legislature,” said the governor’s spokesman, Sean Walsh. “At the end of the discussion and at the end of the legislative process we expect to see the governor’s principles and proposals on his desk for his signature. It is our belief that for welfare reform to succeed the Legislature must adopt significant elements of the governor’s welfare reform proposal.”

The plan Wilson passed to the Legislature in January would be one of the most demanding in the nation.

It would cut in half the time a welfare recipient is allowed to receive assistance before being dropped. Federal law allows two consecutive years on assistance; Wilson’s plan would allow one.

The governor also increased the number of hours welfare recipients would be required to work in order to obtain benefit checks. He also would end the state mandate that counties provide assistance for childless adults who are impoverished.

Democrats have been highly critical of Wilson’s plan, but they have not yet proposed one of their own--although individual Democrats have sponsored plans.

Recently, the governor decided to step up the pressure on lawmakers by planning a series of public events to market his plan in hopes of generating grass-roots support.

Democrats were infuriated at such political maneuvering. At the same time, several party leaders have begun their own outreach effort to community groups and the media.

* BENEFITS BATTLE: Judge bars counties from reducing welfare benefits to newcomers to California. A3