Federal Welfare Reform Law Has Nevada Scrambling For Answers

Saturday, Sept. 14, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

"If it sounds like I have more questions and uncertainty, it's certainly the case," state Welfare Director Myla Florence told the Nevada Welfare Board at a meeting Friday in Reno to discuss the new law.

The Welfare Division's budget proposal for the 1997 session includes a request for 110 new staffers, but Florence said that at the moment "it's not like we have legions of people" to help sort out the implications of the new law and work on new policies.

"Essentially, what's happened is that they've taken 61 years of rules and regulations and set them aside," Florence said, adding that Congress has provided broad mandates to the states "and said it's up to us."

For better or worse, "What we wished for at one time is here," she said.

Under the new law, all states must produce central registries of recipients in order to account for benefits received under what's now called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.

While a lot of old records can be dumped, there are new requirements that even call for tracking people after they get off welfare. Computerized information-sharing among states will be needed to determine how long someone can get assistance.

Some of the tracking will require changes in the Welfare Division's already over-budget "NOMADS" computer system, and will be extremely tough for states with less-centralized welfare systems, Florence said.

"Are they going to have the great computer in the sky?" she added. "Well, that's not there."

But the law also gives states more authority to penalize deadbeat parents who fall behind in child-support. "It gives us more authority than the IRS," Florence quipped.

New policies resulting from the law will have "ripple effects" requiring changes in still more policies, and there are thorny issues like a new definition of a needy family. "I'm not looking forward to that one," Florence said.

In addition, Florence said policy-makers don't want to hurt people - but several thousand legal immigrants now getting various forms of welfare assistance simply will be cut off.

Board members also said that given the emphasis on getting people back to work, the policies may hurt recipients who can't work - such as AIDS victims.

Some of the mandates can be implemented by the Welfare Division - but other provisions must go to the 1997 Legislature because they're options that could alter benefits to the poor. A plan must be in place by next July.

Florence said the legislative involvement is necessary, but it also slows implementation of the new program - which imposes penalties for delays. Private industry, local governments and other state agencies, such as Child and Family Services and the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, also must be involved.

She said Nevada could begin almost immediately with its implementation, starting before the end of the year with a base grant of $44 million from the federal government. By starting early, the state would get more than what it has to pay out. But Florence said that also means a work participation program would have to be fully in place.

"It's one thing to say there's a work requirement, but you have to make sure there are jobs out there," she added.

There's a reduction of the block grant for every month the state doesn't "opt in" early, but Florence said jumping in too quickly and not meeting the work participation requirements could result in still more penalties.

Congress also increased child-care funding to the states. While Nevada's grant will climb from $6 million to $11 million, Florence said that's still not enough to support the demand, and the Legislature will have to decide whether to authorize more funding.

Diane Nassir, the Welfare Division's research and statistics coordinator, told the board that Nevada's welfare caseload has dropped almost 20 percent since hitting a historic high of nearly 43,000 recipients in March 1995. She said 70 percent of that decline has occurred in the last seven months. There now are about 34,000 Nevadans getting such assistance.

Nassir also said the welfare reform law, with its back-to-work emphasis, will work best if there's a robust economy. But she said that at some point an economic downturn is inevitable.