By Kevin Yamamura
kyamamura@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Jun. 13, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic lawmakers were divided Tuesday over the thorny issue of remaking California’s welfare program and whether to allow some parents to receive cash aid without finding work.
The dispute continued three days before the constitutional deadline for passing a state budget, with Brown issuing a public rebuke, saying the Democratic budget was “not structurally balanced and puts us into a hole in succeeding years.”
Legislative Democrats tried to minimize the dispute, saying they were “99 percent” in agreement with Brown’s $91.4 billion spending plan.
Brown invoked former President Bill Clinton in urging them to restructure the state’s welfare-to-work system, known as CalWORKs, by imposing harsher consequences for parents who do not seek work.
“Last year, legislators enacted major reforms that cut spending on prisons and eliminated redevelopment,” Brown said in a statement. “This year, we need additional structural reforms to cut spending on an ongoing basis, including welfare reform that’s built on President Clinton’s framework and focused on getting people back to work.”
Brown’s plan would cut off parents from welfare grants and child care after two years instead of four if they do not work or pursue training. It would also cut “child-only” grants by 27 percent, from $516 to $375 monthly for a family of three. Many child-only cases involve parents who exhausted their time limit or are ineligible to receive aid because they are disabled or undocumented with legal children.
The governor’s reference to Clinton harkens back to the 1996 federal law that imposed stricter welfare requirements. Those changes dropped the number of recipients in California from a monthly average of 2.67 million in 1995 to 1.41 million in December 2011.
Despite imposing stricter reductions in welfare payments and shorter time limits since the recession, California has an outsized share of the nation’s welfare population – one-third of the U.S. recipients for a state with one-eighth of the population, according to federal data. Different factors contribute, including aiding children whose parents are ineligible.
In a Senate budget hearing Tuesday, Democrats said Brown’s plan would harm children because it imposes harsh consequences for not finding work when unemployment remains high at 10.9 percent.
“I don’t know that President Clinton was dealing with an economy like ours today,” Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, said after a Brown aide referred to the 1996 change.
Senate Democrats also halved a Brown cut to in-home care workers in committee Tuesday. Police arrested 10 demonstrators who blocked the governor’s office as part of a protest organized by the Service Employees International Union.
Brown’s welfare plan would save $880 million to help bridge a $15.7 billion deficit. Democrats instead want to save a smaller amount – $327 million – by allowing parents of young children to receive welfare grants without having to find a job.
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Why work when there is no insensitive to excel, while boss man wants more of your blood, sweat and tears.
Soon to be a nation of moochers who care less about the rule of law.
@ Anonymous, how can they work when there are NO jobs! Your seem more bent on “class warfare” than you do actually understand the many problems associated with California’s welfare issues. Many vet and families have been forced to go this route, and many are NOT “moochers”.
Better hope you are never in a position like many Americans who have been forced to seek help. If the bottom falls out of our world economy and the dollar tanks, you will be in the soup lines with the rest of Americans.
Your better than attitude is offensive and unacceptable.
Oh yeah vets aren’t moochers, last I checked there was no war or draft. Protect me from whom? I’ve got a better chance getting my arse rolled in Pomona at night being white, than some an alquida blowing me up. Stupid is as Stupid does.
It’s called guaranteed employment and benefits on the tax payers dime.
Wake up Branson, anyone who doesn’t believe class warfare exists is ignorant.
Anon#1
Getting food on your table and a “simple” roof over your head should be INCENTIVE ENOUGH! What’s your incentive? A million dollar paycheck, free mansion, and a fleet of luxury cars at your disposal? Get real, if the boss wants your blood, give it, then at the end of the day you can say you work, not mooched, and paid your way.
Branson is an idiot, pure and simple. Ive worked in Welfare for a number of years and I can assure you that well over 80% are welfare cheaters. The only issue is the degree of cheating. I can tell you that anyone that supports the welfare system is either a parasite or just ignorant.