Most Agree Aid System Needs Fixing State Advisory Council Holding Its First Series Of Public Hearings On Welfare Reform

Welfare recipients were noticeably absent at a hearing on their fate Tuesday night, except for Laurie Johnson.

While much testimony centered around “workfare” programs and punishing unmarried mothers, Johnson spoke of living in neighborhoods where dogs are considered part of the food chain.

She reminded the visiting Governor’s Council that some folks on welfare have to agonize over whether to purchase a pair of thrift-store shoes for a child or eat a decent meal.

“Our needs are to survive,” she said. “You are discussing people’s lives.”

She was addressing 15 men and women from around the state who have been appointed by Gov. Phil Batt to revamp welfare, specifically Aid to Families with Dependent Children, or AFDC.

The advisory council is holding its first series of public hearings throughout the state to hear ideas from the public and public service agencies.

The council will take public comment statewide again after developing proposals. Batt will use the suggestions to propose legislation next session.

Tonight, the panel will take testimony at LewisClark State College in Lewiston.

Most of the 80 or so people at Tuesday’s hearing agreed that the current system of public assistance is not ideal.

“We have an obligation to people who are in a truly needy situation,” said Scott Burpee of St. Maries. But often government assistance, which Burpee described as institutionalized compassion, “ends up disabling people.”

Kootenai and Shoshone county indigent program coordinators asked the panel not to cut the state program so much that county taxpayers are left caring for the destitute.

Kootenai County’s indigent program has had an monthly average of 537 requests for help so far this year, up from 260 requests per month in 1992, said Marla Lewis, manager of the county program.

“The county taxpayer has carried enough of this burden,” she said.

Several people spoke in favor of job training programs, or requiring welfare recipients to do community service work in exchange for their hand-outs.

“I would like to see the state of Idaho be the kind of uncle who will have a good meal and warm bed waiting for you when you split the wood and stack it in the wood shed,” said Dwight Hamilton.

Sen. Mary Lou Reed, D-Coeur d’Alene, said that ideally the jobs should be in the private sector. She also suggested a benefit program to encourage employers to hire people struggling to get off welfare.

She also suggested raising the minimum wage to help people avoid welfare in the first place.

One man suggested sterilizing men and women who go on welfare to discourage them from having children. But most speakers supported the less Draconian measure of not increasing welfare benefits to women who bear more children.

Several speakers urged the panel to approach its task with compassion and not hurt the people that public assistance is designed to help.

Local representatives on the panel are Sen. Gordon Crow, R-Coeur d’Alene, and Jack Riggs, a physician.

The panel is accepting written comments before August 31. The address is Welfare Reform Advisory Council, P.O. Box 83720, Boise, ID, 83720-0036.

, DataTimes