Welfare Issue Complicates Vote on California Budget

As the California Legislature prepares for a showdown vote today on the state budget, welfare has emerged as a sticking point in passage of the $100-billion spending plan.

Republicans, whose votes are needed for the requisite two-thirds passage, are complaining angrily that Democrats want to roll back welfare reform by making more people eligible. They point to a proposal that would exempt a recipient’s first car, regardless of value, as proof that Democrats are bent on expanding welfare rolls.

Currently, individuals with cars worth more than $4,650 are not eligible for welfare. The Democrats’ proposed exemption would add an estimated 3,660 new cases and cost $17 million in the 2000-01 budget.

“Why would you want to add to the numbers of people who are receiving welfare at the very time you’re trying to reduce the number of people on welfare?” Assemblyman Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) asked. “These are very big issues to us.”

Democrats contend that the exemption would merely allow people to have more reliable automobiles to get them to and from work. Federal officials have proposed a rule change that is similar, though not as generous.

The conflict represents a classic philosophical difference between the two parties, with Democrats contending that if ever there was a time to break the cycle of poverty, this is it: The state is awash in a $12.8-billion surplus.

“It’s an unbelievable thing that the state budget, with the kinds of resources we’re talking about this year, would get hung up on something as small as this,” said Assemblywoman Dion Aroner (D-Berkeley) of the GOP’s welfare concerns.

Republicans say the car exemption and several other provisions in legislation attached to the budget are meant to undo CalWORKS, the state’s welfare-to-work program enacted by the Legislature in 1997. CalWORKS revolutionized the state’s welfare system by instituting five-year lifetime caps on cash benefits for most adults and requiring them to work or engage in welfare-to-work activities, such as job training classes.

GOP lawmakers also are arguing that the budget’s transportation allocation heavily favors mass transit and large cities, which are Democratic strongholds, at the expense of suburban and rural areas, which many Republicans represent. And they say the tax cuts in the plan are far too modest, given the massive surplus.

Legislative leaders continued Wednesday to negotiate details of the proposed $2.7-billion tax cut and the $2-billion transportation plan promoted by Gov. Gray Davis. A spokeswoman for Davis said he was meeting with the lawmakers to discuss unresolved budget issues, including the welfare provisions, which the governor could veto.

“He’s not interested in a wholesale rewriting of California welfare laws,” said Davis spokeswoman Hilary McLean. The partisan differences could stymie an attempt by Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) and Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) to win legislative approval of the budget today--the rarely met June 15 constitutional deadline.

Assembly Presents Bigger Hurdle

The spending plan appears to have garnered enough support to pass the state Senate.

The bigger fight will be in the Assembly, where several Republican lawmakers have been vocal in their opposition to the document. The welfare issue, according to Ashburn, is a big reason.

Republicans are concerned about policy shifts in the $5.26-billion program, which is expected to have a caseload of 540,746 in the 2000-01 budget year--a 5.1% decrease over the previous year. A family of three would see their CalWORKS grant rise by $19 a month, to $645 in 2000-01.

In addition to the car exemption, Republicans’ concerns include a provision for allowing welfare recipients to count school study time toward work requirements.

The independent legislative analyst’s office has taken no position on the study time or car exemption provisions, concluding only that the former provision is likely to have minimal costs.

Todd Bland of the legislative analyst’s office said his agency has recommended that counties be allowed to offer community service jobs in which a welfare grant is paid through an employer such as county government or a nonprofit agency.

Democrats support related legislation that would clarify existing laws to allow such an approach, saying it would afford welfare recipients the opportunity to look like employees.

Republicans have voiced grave concerns about the approach. They fear it would trigger the Fair Labor Standards Act, which could make welfare recipients eligible for vacation and sick leave benefits.

Also at issue is a proposal to allow counties to use money saved by reducing the number of people on welfare--which counties get to keep--to provide services and benefits to people who do not qualify for the CalWORKS program.

Democrats say providing transportation, child care and employment services--as opposed to checks--would help keep recipients off public assistance. Under the plan, Los Angeles County would be allowed to spend a maximum of 25%, or roughly $90 million of the $360 million of those funds that the county expects by June 30, on such services.

“If you could get people better prepared now, while things are good,” Aroner said, “maybe they’ll be a little more competitive in the work environment when things are bad.”

Rather than expand the pool of people receiving services, Ashburn counters, the money should be spent on existing CalWORKS recipients as originally intended.

“The people who are the easiest to move off the rolls are going,” Ashburn said. “What remains are the people most difficult to move off . . . so we shouldn’t commit these funds to some other class.”

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Times staff writer Dan Morain contributed to this story.