THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 18, 1995 TAG: 9505180815
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
The Allen administration bypassed Hampton Roads on Wednesday in naming 31 localities to participate in the first year of the state's revolutionary new welfare-to-work program.
The localities are concentrated in northern and south-central Virginia and generally include cities and counties with low unemployment rates or limited caseloads. Nine of the state's top 10 localities in welfare population, including Richmond, Norfolk and Roanoke, were not on the list.
State officials, under some fire due to widespread uncertainty over the mechanics of the plan, acknowledged the chaotic nature of turning one of the nation's most sweeping reform laws into reality by July 1.
But Kay Coles James, secretary of health and human resources, said a ``herculean task'' of developing regulations and policy for a plan that will limit major welfare benefits to two years is being accomplished in a short time.
``I understand the anxiety,'' she said. But ``things are happening. It is happening fast.'' The start-up deadline will be met, she said.
Gov. George F. Allen unveiled the first-tier localities at a daylong briefing for social services administrators, the Virginia Municipal League, the Virginia Association of Counties and others. State officials said they can't say when other cities and counties will come on line in what is supposed to be a four year phase-in.
Five localities - the city of Culpeper and Fauquier, Rappahannock, Orange, and Madison counties - will enter the program July 1, as long as federal approval is granted, as expected. Each 90 days after that, several additional localities will be added.
The largest localities tapped in the first year will enter on April 1, 1996. All are in Northern Virginia, including Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax County, which has the state's third largest population on Aid to Families With Dependent Children.
The announcement underscored the speed with which decisions are being made. Social Services Commissioner Carol Brunty said she learned less than 24 hours earlier which localities would be included, as did budget analyst Anne Pace.
Pace, who devised cost and savings estimates for the legislature last winter, acknowledged that those figures are now out-of-date. The estimates figured that about 27,000 of the state's 74,000 welfare recipients would enter the plan in its first year. Instead, the localities tapped by Allen have about 17,100 welfare clients.
The dip means that the $10.5 million allotted for the first year of welfare reform will almost certainly be sufficient to cover transportation, day care and other costs, Pace said. It is uncertain, she said, how cost estimates for future years will be affected by the change.
In a pep talk to the welfare workers, Allen compared the philosophy behind the welfare reform plan to that of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt in instituting the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Core during the depression.
The new program, like Roosevelt's, emphasizes ``the work ethic, self-reliance and independence,'' he said.
Many features of the new plan will take effect statewide on July 1. Among them:
Welfare recipients who get pregnant after that date will not receive extra benefits when their child is born.
Mothers under age 18 will have to stay in school and live with a parent or adult relative to get welfare benefits.
Fathers under age 18 will have to stay in school or be held liable for child support.
The most controversial feature of the new plan - requiring most able-bodied welfare recipients to work, and cutting off their benefits after two years - will take effect gradually, however.
Welfare recipients in the first-tier localities will be expected to sign an agreement with the state within 90 days after their locality enters the program. The clock will start ticking on the two-year cutoff as soon as the agreement is signed.
Officials said the initial selections were based on such factors as unemployment rate, size of caseload, labor market prospects, staffing levels in the local social services department, local support for reform and the strength of the relationship between the welfare office and the local business community.
``We need to have our system really down'' before tackling major cities such as those in southeastern Virginia, said John Littel, deputy secretary for health and human resources.
Still unanswered are many questions about how jobs will be developed and training carried out. But state officials said individual localities will come up with individual answers to those questions. Several state task forces are working to help them, they said.
``Never has there been a time when you need to be more creative, more innovative,'' James told the local officials, whose reactions seemed to range from wary to worried to enthusiastic.
Without education reform, ``all this is just a way of shuffling people from one program to another,'' said Sallie Vick, a welfare supervisor in Sussex County.
But Noreen Slater, director of social services in Manassas Park, said her locality is so excited that officials volunteered to be in the first group. The ``legislative nudge'' to get off welfare will work, she said, once people realize that ``their only choice is to work or find themselves in dire circumstances.'' MEMO: Staff writer David Poole contributed to this story.
ILLUSTRATION: Kay Coles James
Gov. George Allen
KEYWORDS: WELFARE REFORM by CNB