Families Shocked by Gregoire’s Welfare Cuts, Students Should Be Too

In August Governor Gregoire announced $51 million in cuts to welfare programs to families. These will be achieved by cutting off a family’s welfare grant after 5 years even if they have been participating in job search or job readiness programs the entire time. This will leave these families with only food stamps and no way to pay the rent.

Families protesting budget cuts to safety net programs met with members of Governor Gregoire’s staff on September 1st. They chose September 1st in solidarity with nearly 2,000 disabled adults who had their sole income, a $339 disability grant, terminated because of a retroactive five-year time limit the Legislature passed and the Governor signed last session.

“These are people who have already proven to the state that they are too disabled to work. We invite them to join us to ask the Governor what she expects them to do?” announced Monica Peabody, Director of Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights (POWER) in a press release.
Gov. Gregoire has said that the solution to Washington’s projected $3 billion budget shortfall for the next two-year budget cycle is for everyone to tighten our belts financially. But the people having to “tighten their belts” the most are those who don’t have any room left to do so. Washington state’s disability benefits, formerly called GAU, now called Disability Lifeline, have not had a cost of living increase in over 20 years. Cash benefits to parents with no or low incomes are called TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families). They have had one 3% increase in the past 17 years; a single mother and her child receive $453 per month.

Further cuts will be achieved by limiting support services, like childcare, that provide parents the ability to successfully meet the onerous work requirements that accompany TANF Wendy Davis, a POWER intern and mother, says cutting childcare will “shoot me in the foot. I’m maxed as it is and can’t even afford to pay the bills. I would have to decide between childcare and rent, which is illogical. I can’t work without childcare, but can’t afford childcare to work.”

There were no welfare recipients invited to join the WorkFirst Redesign team, the group that made recommendations of which programs to cut to the Governor. This was a mistake according to Jade Souza, a POWER board member. “If they ask people who rely on these programs where to cut, we can suggest improvements that could provide the savings without creating the job loss and homelessness the Governor’s cuts will engender.”
POWER members are recommending the following cuts, instead of those proposed by the Governor:

1) Streamline the welfare to work program to the unemployment program. Currently TANF recipients are required to make 15 job contacts a week, go to the Work Source office every day, and log 35 hours a week of job search. Unemployment recipients are required to make 3 job contacts a week and send in weekly reports. Parents who live 60 miles from the Work Source office, or for whom it is a 3-hour bus ride each way, are told there are no exceptions. They say that the requirements get in the way of their finding a job. Governor Gregoire’s staff agreed that the requirements are unattainable and streamlining the program would save money.

2) Make work requirements voluntary. California legislators admitted they could no longer afford to adequately run their welfare to work program and made participation voluntary, saving a proposed $510 million in childcare and administrative costs. Rather than playing the dangerous social experiment of withdrawing support services while maintaining work requirements, allow parents to choose whether to look for work outside the home, or save the state millions of dollars in childcare costs by caring for their own children.
In addition to making money-saving changes instead of cutting programs, our legislatros could close the budget gap by supporting I-1098, an initiative that will be on the ballot in November. If passed by voters, I-1098 would instate an income tax on individuals who make more than $200,000 per year, or joint filers making more than $400,000 per year.
The tax would only affect 38,400 Washingtonians and would generate $2 billion dollars annually. This would give Washington a shot at no longer being the state with the most regressive tax system in the country. Currently Washington only has sales and property taxes. The sales tax requires everyone to pay the same amount, so people making less than $20,000 a year pay 17.3% of their income in taxes, while those pulling in $537,000 or more pay only 2.6%

Sisters Organize for Survival, a Seattle-based group is working to raise awareness and support for I-1098.

You can get involved:

• CALL 206-722-6057
• E-MAIL RWseattle@mindspring.com
• VOTE!!!!
  To take action against cuts to welfare and disability, contact Governor Gregoire and tell her you don’t support legislation that hurts families:
• CALL:
  360-902-4111 (for the deaf or hard of hearing, dial 7-1-1)
• WRITE:
  Office of the Governor
  PO Box 40002
  Olympia, WA 98504-0002

Or get involved with POWER. POWER is an organization of low-income parents and allies advocating for a strong social safety net while working toward a world where children and care giving are truly valued, and the devastation of poverty has been eradicated. They are planning on holding demonstrations at the Capitol every Wednesday until their voices are heard.

As students facing the increasing costs of higher education, cuts to programs, and less financial aid, we have a vested interest in joining those who are fighting budget cuts in other areas. If we work in solidarity with families facing welfare cuts, collectively we can make changes that will benefit us all.

To join with POWER you can call or e-mail them, visit their website, stop by their office, or find them on Facebook and Myspace!

701 Franklin Street SE
Olympia, WA 98501
360-352-9716 toll free 866-343-9716
welfarerights@riseup.net
http://www.oly-wa.us/power/