State welfare declines

Tuesday, July 23, 2002 | 9:44 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The number of welfare recipients in the state declined from the previous month for only the third time in the last two fiscal years.

The state Welfare Division reported Monday there were 34,393 persons on the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, a 2 percent decline from the previous month, or 729 fewer recipients.

For the fiscal year that ended June 30, the number of people receiving aid increased by 80 percent, said Tami Dufresne, coordinator of research and statistics for the division. She said the state budgeted for 17,496 in June but the number was nearly double that.

To get through the past fiscal year, the state had to dip into a reserve fund for $10.9 million, says Deputy Administrator Roger Mowbray. He said the growth in welfare numbers will exhaust the remaining reserve fund of $20 million this fiscal year.

"We will have barely enough to carry us through this fiscal year," Mowbray said. "We're watching it very closely."

Coupled with the decline in TANF in June, those eligible for Medicaid and food stamps inched up slightly.

Medicaid cases in June reached 156,585, an increase of .6 percent from the previous month. And food stamps rose .3 percent to 98,650 in May, the latest month figures are available for.

When Congress enacted welfare reform in 1996, the number of those drawing public assistance dropped. Dufresne said the lowest point was 15,486 in March 2000. Before welfare reform, the highest number ever was 42,703 recipients, she said.

The number of welfare families started climbing in the spring of 2001 and escalated after Sept. 11. Gov. Kenny Guinn, after major layoffs in Las Vegas, granted a waiver so that people who drew unemployment insurance could qualify for welfare.

Dufresne said that accounts for about 6 percent of the current caseload.