Carrying On a Commitment to the Poor

Three decades ago, former state Assemblyman Phil Burton ramrodded a welfare reform law through a reluctant California Legislature, increasing benefits and providing unemployed fathers access to aid for the first time.

A few years later, as a congressman, he engineered the creation of a vast new program that would extend cash assistance to aged, blind and disabled Americans.

This year, his younger brother, state Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco), quietly carried on his legacy, demanding above all else that the state budget include a substantial boost in cash assistance for the poor.

As a result, effective Jan. 1, more than a million blind, aged and disabled Californians who receive assistance under his late brother’s program will get a 3.8% hike in benefits, increasing the typical monthly check from $650 to about $675. It is the first time the state has increased its share of funding for this group in nearly a decade.

And 739,000 poor families who get aid under a program called CalWORKS got an 8.1% increase last month, pushing the maximum monthly payment for a mother and two children in Los Angeles from $565 to $611. It was the first increase in nine years and it came after a series of steep cuts in basic benefits.

“Helping poor people is my passion,” Burton said in an interview. “The main reason I’m in government is to do something for the less fortunate in society who need help. My brother years ago wrote the first big bill to help poor women and children, and I was part of a deal to give them a cost of living increase [many years ago], so it’s something that’s just very important to me.”

From Day 1 of the state budget negotiations with Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, who had made welfare cuts one of the hallmarks of his administration, Burton said he made it clear that his top priority was improving benefits for the poor.

“I think Pete knew that was my price for doing anything,” he said. “I mean, [the administration] just knew that this was my deal and there was going to be no [compromise] about it.”

Wilson’s spokesman, Sean Walsh, said that although the governor opposed the increases, he decided that what he got in return from Burton--agreement on $3 billion in tax cuts--was worth the trade.

“Our view at the time was that when you’re trying to get people off the welfare rolls, increasing their benefits and making welfare look more attractive is counter to that goal,” Walsh said. “But the work requirements we put into welfare reform does help to offset some of the potential incentives that an increase in payments would cause.”

Casey McKeever, directing attorney for the Western Center on Law & Poverty in Northern California, said even with the increase, welfare benefits have not returned to the levels they reached before the cuts. At the high point in 1989, a family of three could receive a maximum monthly payment of $694.

McKeever said the benefit hike was higher for CalWORKS recipients than for the blind, aged and disabled because it included a cost of living increase as well as the restoration of a 4.9% cut that went into effect in 1995. The same cut had not applied to the aged, blind and disabled.

The increase for the aged, blind and disabled will make California’s benefits for that group the third highest in the nation, behind Alaska and Connecticut. Although the program, known formally as Supplemental Security Income, is financed by the federal government, California is one of several states that have chosen to add a supplement.

Marilyn Holle, senior attorney for the Los Angeles office of Protection and Advocacy, a group that represents people with disabilities, said California’s higher benefits have enabled many people to live independently who might otherwise be in nursing or board and care homes.

“The reality is also that in California we have incredibly high rents,” she said. “People typically pay 50% to 60% of their check for rent. What this will mean is that people will get to eat a little bit extra.”

SSI recipients do not get food stamps because a food allowance is figured into their basic benefits. CalWORKS families, however, get food stamps in addition to their monthly cash assistance.

For them, the hike in benefits will mean they will receive slightly less in food stamps, which are based on family income.