MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
Right now, Missouri government has the power to reshape the state welfare program completely.
Renee Basick has the details from Jefferson City.
Under the federal welfare reform bill that was passed in 1996, the responsibility for administration of welfare programs was shifted to individual states.
The federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act pushes Missouri to revise its own welfare legislation.
Missouri Senator Joe Maxwell is a member of a special welfare reform committee for Missouri.
Maxwell says the goal of the committee is to pass legislation to reduce dependency on welfare.
Missouri was moving in this direction well before the federal government decided to pass these laws.
In fact, a state law passed in 1994 meets all the Federal guidlines and is stricter in some areas.
For instance, Missouri requires a two year review process of recipients and the federal law has none.
Maxwell sponsored the current legislation, which has moved 48,000 Missourians from welfare to work.
Yet there are other issues that complicate the legislative process.
State government will now look at a series of bills aimed at filling the gap left by new federal restrictions.
One proposed bill will use 30 million dollars of tax-payer money to help heat and cool homes of Missouri poor that previously received funding through the Federal Lyheat Program.
Yet the federal program short anyway.
According to Jaqueline Hutchinson, a memeber of the Committee to Keep Missourians Warm, Lyheat left 5,000 homes in Missouri without heat at the beginning of last winter.
Utilcare, Missouri's plan, aims at helping the entire eligable population.
Senator Harry Wiggin's chair of the senate committee on welfare reform.
He supports this bill because he witnessed the sacrifice that many poor must make when faced with budgeting choices.
Utilcare proposes direct payment to heating and air-conditioning companies, so there would be one less payment Missouri's poor will have to make.
Senator Marvin Singleton, a member of the Public Health and Welfare Committee, voiced concern about which companies would receive the recipient's aid, calling the reimbursemnet a form of corporate welfare.
This is one example among many issues complicating welfare reform legislation in state government.
Maxwell says that to ensure future success, Missouri must move beyond federal requirements to efficiently utilize funds.
According to Maxwell, this can be acheieved through additional tax credits and additional opprtunities for businesses to hire public aid recipients in Missouri.
State legislature is expected to review and debate possible legislation for the rest of this session.