Welfare Reform Bills Clear Committee Worker’s Comp, Grandparent Bills Headed To Senate Floor

The first two pieces of Gov. Phil Batt’s welfare reform package moved to the Senate floor Tuesday, amid debate over how Idaho can put welfare recipients to work without displacing other workers.

The bills would:

Allow Idaho to pay worker’s compensation insurance for welfare recipients who work or participate in on-the-job training.

Make grandparents, on both sides, financially responsible for their minor children’s babies.

The worker’s compensation measure spurred the most debate in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.

“What protection is there going to be for existing workers, to make sure that these are new jobs?” asked Sen. Mary Lou Reed, D-Coeur d’Alene.

“There’s nothing in here that stops an employer from choosing somebody on the welfare system instead of me, because the state’s going to pay the worker’s comp,” said Sen. Lin Whitworth, D-Inkom.

Judy Brooks, state welfare administrator, said the state will have to plan the program carefully to avoid abuses.

“These are new things that are being tried,” she said. “It’s a real challenge for all of us.”

The worker’s comp measure is key to a major point of the welfare plan: That all welfare recipients, including new moms, will work or learn basic job skills in exchange for their benefits. The state would provide child care.

By working, the welfare parents will learn work habits ranging from how to get the kids to day care and get to work on time, to how to succeed in a work environment, Brooks said.

“In exchange for their benefits, they will be doing something that will lead to self-sufficiency.”

But employers will face costs when they take on a welfare recipient for on-the-job training, she said. “This program says, hey, we’re going to have to spend some money. We hope it leads to permanent, full-time employment. We think it’s probably money well spent.”

The committee approved the worker’s comp bill by an 8-1 vote, with Whitworth opposed. He said he might support it later, after he looks into it further.

Sen. Gordon Crow, R-Hayden, said the worker’s comp measure was suggested by the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, to help the private sector participate in the program.

The grandparent responsibility bill won unanimous approval from the committee. Both bills now will be up for votes in the full Senate.

Four more bills are up for committee hearings Thursday as part of the welfare package.

, DataTimes