Governor Defends Panel’s All-White Look The Council Is Charged With Reassessing The State’s Welfare System

The Batt administration is defending the absence of minorities on the governor’s new Welfare Reform Advisory Council.

While the council does include a Dietrich woman who is receiving support, there is neither an Indian nor a Hispanic among the 15 all-white members on the panel that has just begun getting grounded in the state’s welfare system.

But Jeremy Pisca, special assistant to Gov. Phil Batt, said the makeup of the Idaho panel accurately reflects the state’s welfare population.

Unlike states such as Montana, where the Indian population is much higher and was formally represented in welfare reform discussions, Idaho’s recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children are nearly 84 percent white.

But Pisca also said that the council hopes to obtain information from the Indian tribes, Hispanics and other minority groups as it holds its public hearings throughout the state over the next two months.

Advisory Council Chairwoman Karen McGee, a Pocatello businesswoman and City Council member, agreed that the public hearings were aimed at drawing in views from all corners and sectors of Idaho.

“We need everybody’s input,” McGee said. “We need the diversity.”

The council is charged with reassessing the state’s welfare system with an eye to revamping it to make it not only more efficient but more conducive to helping most people use welfare as just as shortterm safety net on their way back to the labor force.

Some state officials concede it will be difficult to dissuade welfare recipients that given the political and financial climate in Idaho, the advisory council is not out simply to slash welfare benefits in response to taxpayer complaints.

But Batt has repeatedly said he is not out for a solution that eliminates welfare but one that changes it into a long-term financial trap many people.

McGee hopes that the council will have concrete proposals ready for Batt’s review by November.