Program Puts Lawmakers On The Welfare Rolls

How many state legislators understand what it’s like to be a single mom on welfare?

Thirty-one will try to get a feel for it later this month, including North Idaho lawmakers Clyde Boatright, Wayne Meyer and Larry Watson.

The three have signed up for the “Walk a Mile” program, which pairs a legislator with a low-income constituent for four weeks. In addition to meeting with the person and doing things like going grocery shopping or to a welfare office, the lawmaker is asked to live for four weeks on a food-stamp budget.

“It’s more than numbers. You’re talking human beings,” said Cecil Ingram, a retired Boise Cascade accountant and Republican state senator from Boise who said the program was “an eye-opener” for him last year.

Ingram’s so enthusiastic about his experience that he urged his fellow lawmakers to join in this year, tripling the number involved. This is the first year legislators from North Idaho are participating.

Boatright, a Republican senator from Rathdrum, said legislators have debated and enacted welfare reform and should see how it’s affecting recipients.

“It would be interesting to be in their shoes for that one-month period,” he said. “I don’t mind going back down on that level and seeing just how we are treating those folks.”

The program is sponsored by the El-Ada Community Action Agency and the Idaho Women’s Network. It will run Nov. 17 to Dec. 15.

Idaho is one of nine states participating in the program, and the only one in the West.

Ingram last year was paired with a woman who was juggling a baby and college classes, and earning straight A’s.

“It really impressed me how bright some of these individuals really are, and the overwhelming odds that they’re fighting against to get out of this,” he said.

When Ingram and the woman went shopping for groceries on a food-stamp budget, Ingram said he found that he could afford only generic store brands, and he was glad they were there.

Welfare, he said, “is just barely an existence living. It was just really a total shock to me to see how hard most of these people struggled.”

Boatright, a real estate agent and farmer, agreed to feed his family on the amount a food stamp recipient would receive during the four weeks.

Asked how his wife felt about the upcoming experience, he admitted, “I don’t remember discussing it with her.”

Call doctor, bring life raft

As the legislative session approaches and officials stake out their positions on issues like prison reform, the analogies are starting to get colorful down here.

Attorney General Al Lance last week compared crime to cancer: “No one would suggest their surgeon excise only 12.5 percent of their malignant tumor because it would cost too much to remove it all.”

Montana Schools Supt. Nancy Keenan, whom Lance criticized, used this one to talk about the value of crime prevention: “You keep pulling people out of the river - maybe you’d better go upstream and see who’s pushing them in.”

, DataTimes MEMO: Cut in Spokane edition

North-South Notes runs every other Saturday. To reach Betsy Z. Russell, call 336-2854, fax to 336-0021 or e-mail to bzrussell@rmci.net.

This sidebar appeared with the story: WALK A MILE The “Walk a Mile” program, pairs a legislator with a low-income constituent for four weeks. The lawmaker does things like going grocery shopping or to a welfare office, and also is asked to live for four weeks on a food-stamp budget.