Plan to Put Needy in Driver’s Seat Is Sound

“Seems a little drastic but we’ve got to help people get off welfare,” responded Simi Valley City Councilwoman Sandi Webb to Supervisor Frank Schillo’s proposal to give low-cost automobile loans to former welfare recipients.

Her remark actually translates into a ringing endorsement when you consider that in June 1992 Webb loaded a pickup with half a ton of turnips and deposited them in Gov. Pete Wilson’s office with the admonition, “Get blood out of these.”

Even a card-carrying libertarian ought to be able to get behind this scheme. Theoretically, unlike food stamps and housing subsidies, Schillo’s simple yet smart strategy shouldn’t cost the taxpayer a penny, pretty or otherwise.

The county is merely obliged to keep the same amount of loot as the grand total of funds loaned out in the coffers of the Ventura County Credit Union with whom it regularly does business. Contrary to what has been reported by the fourth estate, Schillo asserts, “county supervisors are not becoming used-car salesmen.”

Wilson dump-trucked the devilish details for putting people back to work onto the counties. According to Schillo, one-third of welfare recipients are currently ready, willing and able to punch a time clock, yet lack of transportation obstructs the mission.

In the bedroom communities of Ventura County, work requires wheels. Auto loans, readily available to members in good standing on the employment rolls, are summarily denied to denizens on the dole.

While Supervisors John Flynn and Kathy Long support a dubious proposal contingent upon volunteer do-gooders providing transportation, even if a project dependent on volunteers proves dependable, a ride program seems to further foster what President Clinton and Congress previously decried as dependency-inducing policy.

Discounted bus tokens, though invaluable to the disabled and the elderly, simply don’t pay the fare when the existing public transportation network seriously restricts the area in which one might seek work.

As any licensed-to-drive teenager will tell you, used cars suck up big-time repair and insurance dollars. Schillo has already negotiated agreements with Ventura College to have auto mechanic classes perform minor repairs and with the Ventura County Gas Station Owners Assn. to do major repairs at cost. Insurance will be included in the monthly loan payment on what Schillo guestimates will be a $5,000 previously owned vehicle.

Next step: the test case. A single welfare family will play guinea pig while Schillo tweaks his game plan against a Jan. 1 deadline.

Described as “hell on wheels,” Webb claims she copped her council seat by literally roller-skating into the hearts of Simi Valleyites known to relish “someone who’s not afraid to try new things.” She has found a kindred spirit in Frank Schillo.