Reserve funds available for laid-off workers

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Thursday, Nov. 15, 2001 | 9:53 a.m.

As much as $10 million in reserve funds could be used in the next year to meet the needs of Nevada's workers laid off after Sept. 11, members of the state Welfare Board were told Wednesday.

"This is the first time we've ever had to think of using this money," said Nancy Ford, administrator at the Welfare Division.

"We're very relieved that we have it."

The funds would be used for cash assistance to needy families, part of a program known as TANF. The welfare program is second to food stamps in number of applicants and is part of a 12 percent jump in total applications for assistance seen in the past two months.

The state has a reserve of $31 million in unspent federal funds that has built up over the past five years as a result of growth and since welfare reform in 1996.

The State Welfare Division will ask the Interim Finance Committee of the Legislature on Nov. 26 to approve using $4.5 million. Ford said the agency projects that as much as $10 million may be needed by the next legislative session in 2003.

It is conceivable the agency may need more, Ford said.

Tami Dufresne, who coordinates research and statistics for the welfare division, said that the agency is hard-pressed to project the effects of the estimated 16,000 layoffs to date on the number of people seeking assistance.

"We had a new economic model in place since July, and it was helping us predict the effects of what was already a slowing economy," she said.

"But no model or human being can predict for what's happened.

"We just have to analyze the figures month to month and try and get a handle on what's going on."

Ford said that the very idea of developing a reserve has been controversial over the years.

"Advocacy groups have criticized the agency in the past for setting the money aside instead of raising the average grant amount, which is $127.44," she said.

"But we've always said that the idea of the program has been to encourage economic self-sufficiency in the families receiving assistance, so we have put funds into programs like employment training and substance abuse as well."

Brenda Carrera, director of the Nevada Empowered Women's Project, a nonprofit agency, said that she and other advocates may now revise their position on the reserve -- at least on the agency having one.

"I'm glad that the state is finally looking into using the money, but I also think at least some of it should have been used for social services a long time ago," she said.

"Perhaps the idea of having a reserve is not a bad one, but $31 million seems like a lot of money to be setting aside."

Jeanette Hills, deputy administrator for the Welfare Division, said that the money saved after welfare reform was a result of ecomonic growth in Nevada.

"But what happens when there is no growth?" she said.