Panel OKs Aid to Counties for General Relief, Legal Immigrants

SACRAMENTO — A joint legislative committee charged with shaping welfare reforms approved a proposal Tuesday to shift nearly a third of the costs of General Relief from counties to the state.

The vote was the first of a two-pronged victory for counties. The second win came when the same committee decided to establish a state-financed program to provide cash benefits to poor and elderly legal immigrants who will be cut off from Supplemental Security Income this fall.

A top priority for Los Angeles County, the proposal would affect about 17,000 immigrants for whom county officials said “there may be no alternative means of survival.”

“These are big-ticket items for the counties,” said Margaret Pena, a lobbyist for the California State Assn. of Counties. “This is what is going to make us or break us.”

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, taking advantage of current state law, moved ahead with its efforts to impose a four-month time limit on benefits for its more than 50,000 “employable” General Relief recipients.

The supervisors also gave their final approval to a decision to deny those recipients with drug and alcohol problems any general assistance unless they are in treatment programs.

While county officials were cheered by the legislative committee’s proposal, it was quickly put in doubt by a spokesman for Gov. Pete Wilson who said the governor would oppose any plan to have the state assume even a part of the cost. Both proposals have to be approved by the Legislature and the governor.

Wilson’s press secretary, Sean Walsh, said the General Relief proposal mainly would assist Los Angeles County and some other large counties that he said have policies making it relatively easy for people to get assistance.

“This is not a proposal that provides flexibility and relief to all counties in California,” Walsh said.

Ever since the passage last summer of a massive federal welfare act, populous urban counties have been expecting a mammoth increase in the county-financed General Relief rolls as immigrants and other welfare recipients lose their federal benefits.

The joint Senate-Assembly committee, dominated by Democrats, attempted to offer the counties some assistance by approving a compromise plan for the state to pay 30% of the benefits and 15% of the administrative costs of the program. The counties can choose whether to accept state assistance or operate their own program.

The proposal also calls for the state to pick up all the cost for any future growth in caseloads. The program serves 147,000 statewide, with 88,000, or about 60%, living in Los Angeles County.

Under the proposal, uniform statewide benefit rates of $256 a month for large counties would be established--Los Angeles County’s current payment is $212 monthly--and counties would be prevented from imposing their own time limits for General Relief recipients.

The Board of Supervisors’ 5-0 vote to limit county General Relief payments came despite prolonged protests by welfare recipients at the Hall of Administration. “You are going to devastate so many lives,” one homeless woman, Jennifer Waggoner, told the board.

The supervisors did, however, say they may roll back some restrictions in the coming months--but only if advocates for the poor promise to let the county off the hook for tens of millions of dollars in retroactive welfare payments that an appellate court has ruled it owes to General Relief recipients.

County lawyers are negotiating with legal aid attorneys, who are trying to avert the imposition of time limits on benefits.

The latest proposal, discussed by the supervisors in executive session Tuesday, would set a $70-million cap on the county’s retroactive liability in exchange for a delay of at least 18 months in the imposition of time restrictions, according to sources.

The supervisors voted to proceed with plans for the cuts while the negotiations continue.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky said the county still has months to reach a compromise before the time limitations kick in.

Several anti-poverty advocates told the supervisors Tuesday that they were making a mistake in forging ahead with the cuts even as the legislative committee proposed that the state absorb part of the costs.

The committee proposal “is a major victory for people on [General Relief], and another sign that the county is going against the tide of welfare reform at the state level,” said Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness.