Lawmakers question Nevada’s response to federal welfare reform

Saturday, Feb. 8, 1997 | 4:37 a.m.

And some lawmakers came away from the meeting Friday wondering if the state's plan will end up leaving some people out in the cold.

Others didn't get much out of the session because they left early. A few of the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means members skipped the session entirely.

"What concerns me is both the federal and Nevada's plan is strictly laid out one, two, three, but what if something happens? There's no answer," said Ways and Means Chairman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas.

"There needs to be some flexibility in the state plan for recipients just like there's flexibility in the federal plan for states," he added. "What if a person goes through the training and can't find a job? I would hate to see someone penalized after going through the system and following all the rules."

However, Senate Finance Chairman Bill Raggio, R-Reno, plans to wait to see what comes out of the Senate and Assembly welfare subcommittees in the coming months before accessing the plan.

"Generally, the governor's budget has addressed the requirements of the federal program, but there's a limit to the flexibility the state has, so I'll reserve final judgment," Raggio said.

The federal welfare program, established by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act signed into law last summer, eliminates the open-ended entitlement Aid to Families with Dependent Children program and replaces it with a block grant to states.

Under the new Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, states are able to provide assistance on a time-limited basis to needy families, but must adhere to strict federal standards in order to get matching money.

TANF will cost $107 million to assist Nevada families in the next two years - about 15 percent of that total is administrative costs. Of that total, Nevada must contribute $38.8 million to get the federal matching grant of $67.9 million.

The $38.8 million of general fund money for the TANF program represents just 1 percent of the governor's total budget of $3.04 billion.

TANF sets a strict five-year lifetime limit to the amount of assistance available, with no exemptions. And Nevada will cut off assistance for individuals after receiving benefits for 24 months - not necessarily consecutive - but may exempt up to 25 percent of its caseloads from the two-year limit.

Arberry said he is concerned that people will be pushed out of the system and into a void.

"Then what happens to those people?" Arberry asked. "We don't know. The records show that the number of people on the rolls is going down, but not all of those people are getting jobs, they just don't qualify anymore."

A critical requirement of TANF is job training to move participants to self-sufficiency.

However, Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, questioned exactly how many people getting assistance have a high school diploma, or have worked previously, to get an idea of how many people the training requirement will affect.

"If we're going to do another social experiment we need to learn from previous mistakes," Giunchigliani said..

The governor's budget also includes money for training the state's 400 eligibility workers since their caseloads will become more complicated when clients will interview with one worker who determines their eligibility for all public assistance programs.

Myla Florence, administrator of the state welfare division, said the agency loses 27 percent of the eligibility workers during the probationary period because of the complexity of the programs.