Batt Backs Services For The Poor Feels State Should Compensate For The Plight Of Welfare Reform

Gov. Phil Batt says he would not oppose an effort to pump state funding into soup kitchens and other direct services for poor people, offsetting unprecedented demand for those services because of state welfare reform.

“I would not be opposed to the state helping whereever it can to ease the plight of these unfortunate people,” Batt said Tuesday on the Fox Cable TV show, “The O’Reilly Report,” moderated by Bill O’Reilly.

The show was built around the theme that Idaho’s welfare reform has caused many people to turn to food giveaways such as the Boise Rescue Mission.

“I believe there is definitely an increase between the people we’re seeing and the reduction in food stamp benefits,” said Mary Chant of the El Ada Community Action Program.

She called for investment in “healthy communities” to provide more employment and job training services for poor people.

Batt said there isn’t necessarily a direct link between tighter Idaho welfare laws and the increased number of people going to food kitchens.

He said the state was concerned about that possibility, so it hired a consultant to track people who left Idaho welfare rolls when the new rules went into effect.

Just 6 percent are using soup kitchens and comparable services, the governor said. “Forty-four percent found a great increase in self-pride, and we think generally that it has been a very successful venture,” he said.

Under the new rules, people are under a lifetime limit on welfare benefits, and Batt said it appears some people are “banking” their benefits for when they really need them and getting by any way they can.

“We have encouraged them to do so, to bank that time as much as possible,” he said. “We think that by finding ways to cope by themselves, by getting a job, that maybe they will not have to return to welfare after all.”

Batt said he feels that motivation is the key to welfare reform - motivating people to get jobs and stay off welfare.

“I think the person who has a minimum wage job, making $900 a month, is better off than being on welfare,” he said. “They are better off if they have a job.”