Far From a Luxury

Picture this: You’ve lost your job, not so farfetched in this economy, and you need help to keep food on the table. Under current state law, if your car is worth more than $4,650 it would begin to reduce your eligibility for food stamps. You could give up your car, but how would you find another job and get to work?

A bill, AB 144, sponsored by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), would exempt the value of any car from calculations to determine eligibility for food stamps and temporary welfare assistance. That change would allow more California families going through hard times to qualify for government aid without giving up reliable transportation.

Under today’s rules, a 5-year-old Toyota or any other car worth about $7,000 or more would entirely disqualify most families from receiving food stamps in car-dependent California, even if they were eligible based on income. Twenty states fully exempt the value of one car.

That change could, in theory, allow an owner of a Rolls-Royce to qualify for food stamps. But how many luxury car owners could also meet a resource test that limits assets including savings accounts to less than $2,000? Rather than worry about the one or two who would benefit unfairly, California lawmakers should expand benefits for the adults and children who are going hungry either because hard work won’t lift them out of poverty or because of a temporary setback.

The proposed policy would cost the state an estimated $34 million, mere peanuts before the energy crisis and the dot-com fallout bit into projected revenues. Despite the fiscal uncertainty, AB 144 should be approved.

Whether times are tough or flush, few Californians can find and keep a job without a reliable car.