Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 16, 1994 TAG: 9412160054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
About 48,000 welfare recipients would gradually be dropped from public assistance over the next five years, if a far-reaching proposal announced Thursday by Gov. George Allen is adopted.
In 55 low-unemployment areas, including Roanoke County, Botetourt County, Bedford County, Franklin County and Montgomery County, most men and women who get checks from Aid to Families with Dependent Children - the nation's major welfare program - would have to start working for their benefits next summer.
Other cities and counties would phase in gradually, with recipients in Roanoke, Craig County, Radford and Floyd County coming on line in July 1996, and Pulaski County following a year later. The legislature and federal welfare officials must approve those timetables and other major segments of the plan, including a 24-month limit on the number of AFDC checks a welfare recipient can get in a five-year period.
Speaking in a public housing project gymnasium that was freshly painted for the occasion, Allen called the proposal "a revolutionary change from the concept and the times when the government simply doled out a monthly check and turned its back on real problems."
Allen challenged "every Virginian to reassume responsibility for your society," and said it will be up to civic groups, churches, synagogues and families to fill any gaps left by the state's withdrawal. "For too long," he said, citizens have "viewed helping the needy as primarily the role of the government."
He announced the formation of "Volunteer Virginia," a group that will try to match volunteers with poor people who need a helping hand.
While some of the ideas proposed by Allen's Commission on Citizen Empowerment have been disclosed, others - including making the parents of young fathers financially support their grandchildren - were new.
The plan calls for emergency help for poor people with temporary needs and up to three years of state-financed day care and medical assistance while welfare recipients make the transition to the job market. Advocates for the poor say such support is critical to any welfare reform plan.
But it was still unclear how much money Allen intends to invest in providing that help. Allen's dollars-and-cents commitment won't be known until his proposed budget revisions are unveiled Monday, and some poverty advocates said they fear funds for day care and medical needs will be insufficient.
Nor was it clear how many of the 48,000 jobs to be held by welfare recipients will come from the private sector and how many will be government subsidized. State officials said they are working to identify jobs, and that no current worker is to be displaced in creating them.
Secretary of Health and Human Resources Kay Coles James, who headed the Empowerment Commission, projected a $135 million savings over five years. Budget officials later acknowledged that the program will cost - not save - money in at least its first two years.
While the projected savings are a relatively modest portion of the state $1.2 billion annual public assistance tab, not counting federal dollars, officials said the value of getting families off welfare cannot fully be measured in dollars.
The current system "has trapped many Virginians and their families in the saga of dependency," Allen said. "We have taught people not to be self-reliant. We have taught people not to be self-sufficient."
The range of ideas - including making mothers identify the fathers of their children before they get benefits, and yanking driving privileges from fathers who don't support their children - will go far toward correcting that deficiency, he predicted.
Democratic response to the plan was muted, with several policy leaders noting that Democratic Lt. Gov. Don Beyer embraced many of the same ideas before Allen, a Republican, took office.
"It's nearly identical," said Del. David Brickley, D-Woodbridge, who worked on welfare reform with both the Beyer and Allen groups.
About 73,000 families receive AFDC annually in Virginia.
by CNB