THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 20, 1995 TAG: 9501200505
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
Many eastern North Carolina legislators agree on the first step to welfare reform: programs that require most welfare recipients to work and include sanctions for those who don't.
``If you are physically and mentally able and you receive any check from state government, then you should work for it,'' Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare, said last week.
``For those that are totally unwilling to work, there should be no payment.''
Others say the first step is to change individual behavior. They seek laws that would limit the benefits for single mothers, to discourage teenage pregnancy.
``I think the first step is stop rewarding babies born out of wedlock,'' said Rep. Carolyn Russell, a Wayne County Republican and incoming House speaker pro tempore.
``As long as you support that, it will continue to happen.''
State lawmakers, however, are largely dependent on what happens in Congress over the next few weeks, said John Hood, vice president of the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think tank in Raleigh.
In Washington, D.C., House Republican leaders are considering plans to abolish about 100 social programs and replace them with grants to state governments, which would then have a virtually free hand in designing help for the poor.
The move would dismantle more than $60 billion in federal programs that provide cash, food, job training, child care and other services.
Congressional leaders also are reportedly considering cuts of about 20 percent on spending for most of these programs.
``Welfare reform, more than anything else, will depend on the relationship the state is going to have with Washington,'' Hood said.
``Some things are brewing in Washington . . . that will have major implications on what happens in North Carolina.'' by CNB