Welfare Accord Forged by Wilson, Legislators

After weeks of contentious bargaining, Gov. Pete Wilson and legislative leaders announced Monday that they have forged key provisions of a welfare package imposing strict work requirements on recipients, making counties continue to pay for General Assistance and limiting the time poor families can receive aid.

The breakthrough came over the weekend when Wilson gave ground on such issues as time limits and community service jobs for recipients who cannot find work in the private sector.

Under the agreement, current welfare recipients could receive aid for 24 months and new applicants could receive it for 18 months. But counties would have the option to give them an additional six months.

After that, if counties certify that no work is available, a family could continue on aid with the adults working at least 32 hours a week in community service jobs.

By Monday, both sides were acknowledging that except for the final drafting, they had reached accord on all but one of the major issues in the welfare package.

“It seems like we are very close to a final agreement,” said Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward). “I think most of the Republicans will probably vote for it and most of the Democrats will probably vote for it.”

The breakthrough appeared to remove a key obstacle to the passage of a state budget, which is already almost a month overdue. Legislative leaders had hope that after both sides reviewed the agreement line by line, the Assembly and Senate could vote on the welfare plan Thursday or Friday.

“Everybody gave something and now we are near agreement,” said Wilson’s press secretary, Sean Walsh. “What we see today is essentially the governor’s basic principles--requiring real time limits, a work-first approach to welfare and protecting children.”

Still unresolved was whether the state would create a food stamp program for the 120,000 poor legal immigrants who will lose federal assistance in September.

Democrats led by Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante (D-Fresno) have made the food stamp program a top issue, but Wilson has opposed the creation of any new state programs, arguing that it is the federal government’s responsibility to assist legal immigrants.

On Monday, Bustamante said Democrats in the Assembly may hold off voting on a welfare plan until they get some resolution of that issue. “By and large, it’s [the welfare package] a moderate proposal” that Democrats support, he said. But the legal immigrants program “is a major piece, and I cannot visualize the votes necessary to pass a budget without the issue being resolved in one way or another.”

Although in the final hours over the weekend it was Wilson who made many of the concessions, the plan more closely resembled his vision of a welfare program for California than that of the Democrats. The state was forced to overhaul its assistance programs after the president last August signed into law reforms that gave the states new independence to design their own welfare programs.

Liberal Democrats could barely disguise their discouragement, and some said privately that they were considering voting against the agreement.

“No comment,” Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) snapped when asked what she thought of the agreement.

“This is not California at its best; we could do better,” said Assemblywoman Dion Aroner (D-Berkeley).

From the beginning, Wilson had held the upper hand in the negotiations over California’s plan as Democrats often squabbled among themselves, with moderates demanding a tougher approach to welfare and liberals seeking to give recipients more time to enter the work force.

Wilson also was more experienced as a negotiator than any of the legislative leaders who met with him to work out differences over welfare and frequently took advantage of the fact that Democrats desperately wanted a welfare plan and feared a voter backlash if they failed to deal with the issue.

But to advocates for the poor, the final plan was a disappointment, providing much less assistance in moving families into the work force than they had hoped for.

“I don’t see much that will result in anything other than [that] most families under this program will become poorer,” said Casey McKeever, directing attorney for the Western Center on Law and Poverty Inc. “It’s just not as devastating as it could have been if the governor had prevailed more on some of his programs. But I’m still very concerned about further impoverishment of people who are combining work with aid.”

Big urban counties such as Los Angeles also lost on one of their major issues--a Democratic proposal that the state share in the cost of General Assistance. This county-financed program provides aid for poor adults who can’t qualify for any other welfare.

Counties had asked for relief from the financial burden of General Assistance, contending that the time limits and other welfare cuts would send poor people flooding into the program.

To appease them, Wilson had simply proposed removing the state mandate that required counties to provide General Assistance, but most counties preferred the Democratic approach that called for the state to assume 30% of the cost.

When Wilson refused to budge on the issue, the two sides took a middle ground, deciding to leave state law as it is.

Also remaining would be a law Democrats had hoped to rescind, which allows counties to put a 90-day time limit on General Assistance during a one-year period.

Democrats did win concessions from Wilson on his proposal that mothers in a welfare family could not receive assistance until the paternity of their children is legally established. The proposal was designed to force mothers to help the state get child support from the fathers of their children.

But Democrats argued that backlogs in district attorney offices could unfairly penalize mothers who were playing by the rules and providing all the information required of them.

Wilson finally agreed to drop his proposal and simply to require that mothers cooperate by providing information. Those that do not cooperate could be penalized with the loss of aid.

Other provisions in the agreement called for mothers of newborns to be exempt from work requirements for six months after a child’s birth. But it also gave counties the option to extend the exemption to one year or to reduce it to 12 weeks--the time period proposed by the governor--depending on the availability of jobs and child care.

The welfare plan--which would take the name given it by the Democrats, CalWORKS--would become effective Jan. 1, 1998.

Benefit levels would remain as they are now, with a family of three in Los Angeles eligible for a maximum grant of $565 a month.

Under the agreement, welfare recipients would be required to work for at least 20 hours in the first year after the law goes into effect. After Jan. 1, 2000, that time would increase to 32 hours a week.

According to federal law, the state’s program would place a five-year lifetime limit on adults receiving aid but children in a family could continue to collect assistance. Whether that aid would come as cash or vouchers had not been decided by late Monday.

Parents who reach the lifetime limit could receive training and assistance in finding a job, but counties could require them to work in community service jobs to pay for the cost of those services.

Times staff writers Carl Ingram and Max Vanzi contributed to this article.

* STATE BUDGET: Lump-sum payment of a legal bill could alter budget plan. A3

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Welfare Pact

Highlights of the welfare reform accord reached between Gov. Pete Wilson and legislative leaders Monday:

* Time limits: 24 months for current recipients; 18 months for new applicants, plus a county option to extend benefits by six months.

* Community service jobs: County- and state-financed jobs will be provided for those recipients who reach the limits.

* General Assistance: Counties, not the state, will remain responsible for providing General Assistance to the poor.

* Safety net for children: After families reach the five-year limit under federal law, the state will provide cash or non-cash aid to dependent children.

* Maternity exemption: Mothers of newborns generally will be exempted from work requirements for six months.

* Work requirements: 32 hours a week by Jan. 1, 2000.