We need to fix how we measure poverty, By Anne Stuhldreher, October 13, 2009, Sacramento Bee: ” From climate change to redistricting, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have teamed up on a number of issues. It’s time to add another to the list — updating the antiquated and misleading way we measure poverty. It may seem like an odd concern for the Republican duo. But Bloomberg took the lead on the issue last year when conditions in New York City were similar to those California faces today: The economy was down; need was rising; and public resources were constrained. A number-cruncher by trade, Bloomberg turned to statistics to shed light on those suffering in the economic gloom. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” he was quoted as saying. His questions were basic: What people and places in New York have the greatest need? How could the city best deploy its limited public dollars to meet them? And what impact were its current programs having?…”

• Obama aides act to fix safety net, By Jackie Calmes, October 5, 2009, New York Times: “With unemployment expected to rise well into next year even as the economy slowly recovers, the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress are discussing extending several safety net programs as well as proposing new tax incentives for businesses to renew hiring. President Obama’s economic team discussed a wide range of ideas at a meeting on Monday, following his Saturday radio address in which he said it would ‘explore additional options to promote job creation.’ But officials emphasized that a decision was still far off and that in any event the effort would not add up to a second economic stimulus package, only an extension of the first…”
• States offer route for jobs spending, By Gerald F. Sieb, October 6, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “The really bad news for Democrats isn’t that the unemployment rate hit 9.8% last week. The really bad news for the party in power is that the last time unemployment reached that level, it was there or higher for exactly one year. That was between July 1982 and June 1983. If you are thinking of this precedent in political terms, it is important to note that smack in the middle of that dreary stretch, the party then in control — the Republicans — lost 26 House seats in the 1982 midterm elections. Today’s downturn is even harsher, and there is some evidence that the American job-creating machine doesn’t work quite as well now as it did then, even in good times…”

Parenting grandparents feel strain, By Catherine Jun, September 23, 2009, Detroit News: “Deborah Stiell has cared for her granddaughter since the girl left the hospital where she was born 22 months ago. When Jaliyah wails in the middle of the night, Stiell gets up, too. ‘Sometimes you get to the point where you feel like you took on a little too much,’ said Stiell, 55, of Detroit, who also cares for two of her other grandchildren. ‘It’s a challenge.’ Stiell is one of thousands of grandparents in Michigan who, after years of raising their own children, find themselves parenting again. Yet several of the dozen or so agencies that help grandparents like Stiell — with the financial and emotional struggle of parenting in their later years — have themselves become strapped. A few are set to close their doors next month as the economic recession has forced a decline in state and foundation dollars…”

Will safety net hospitals survive health reform?, By Carla K. Johnson (AP), September 3, 2009, San Jose Mercury News: “Janie Johnson has no health insurance, so when she cut her toe while giving herself a pedicure, she limped to the emergency room at one of Chicago’s safety net hospitals and waited her turn. ‘I’m 44, but I probably look about 55 right now,’ Johnson joked in Stroger Hospital’s emergency department where more than 100 patients sat waiting. Urgent cases, from chest pains to gunshot wounds, are rushed to doctors first. Johnson was glad to have somewhere to go for health care. ‘I don’t know what I would do’ without the hospital, she said. ‘My health would probably get worse.’ To all the knotty issues involved in health care overhaul, add one more: The proposals in Congress may threaten the funding and future of the nation’s already-struggling safety net hospitals…”

Japan’s economic downturn pushes more onto streets, By Peter Ford, September 3, 2009, Christian Science Monitor: “By the time the police arrived at 7 a.m. last Monday to move him on from the Ikebukuro subway station where he had spent the night, Isao Ito had been awake for some time. He had been poring over the jobs section of a magazine, and he hadn’t slept well anyway. Newly arrived in the capital in search of work, he said, ‘I haven’t eaten or slept for three days. I’m alone, and I’m nervous about sleeping rough.’ Welcome to the global recession, Japanese style. As Mr. Ito has just found, perhaps nowhere else in the industrialized world is it so easy to slip from just getting by to utter destitution. Some 460,000 people have lost their jobs in Japan since the ‘Lehman shokku,’ as people here call it - the day last September when the collapse of Lehman Bros. bank triggered a worldwide financial crisis. Half of them, like Ito, were on temporary or part-time contracts that gave them no unemployment or other social security insurance…”

• State safety net makes up 46 percent of budget, By Cynthia Needham, August 20, 2009, Providence Journal: “State-funded safety net programs for the poor have grown into an expensive and sometimes chaotic system that doesn’t always effectively serve the neediest residents, according to a report to be released Thursday by the Rhode Island Public Expenditures Council and the United Way. The result of a year-long study, the report combines data with analysis by an advisory council made up of anti-poverty advocates, union officials, clergy and members of the business community, who see first-hand the effects of these programs. Rhode Island, that data suggests, spends an a steadily increasing amount of money on its safety net programs — 46 percent of total spending in the current year’s budget…”
• Study: R.I. social safety net ill-managed, By Chris Barrett, August 20, 2009, Providence Business News: “Rhode Island’s social safety net is expensive and splintered, according to a report released jointly today by United Way of Rhode Island and the R.I. Public Expenditure Council. The 58-page report details federal and state programs that provide assistance to the state’s poor, unemployed and disabled residents. It comes as the state’s economy continues to struggle and state agencies deal with an influx of residents seeking social services. The report found that 46 percent of all spending in this year’s enacted state budget flows to grants and benefits for programs such as Medicaid, medical assistance programs, child care subsidies and unemployment benefits…”

• Pa.’s budget stalemate frays its social safety net, By Marc Levy (AP), August 13, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Pennsylvania’s six-week-old budget stalemate has turned off the spigot that normally keeps billions of taxpayer dollars flowing for social services for the poor, prompting scores of nonprofit agencies to lay off workers, take out loans and cut back to survive. Another month or more without action to free up that money could irrevocably tear a safety net that is already jammed with waiting lists and relies heavily on low-wage employees, according to nonprofit directors and the government officials who deal with them. For now, dollars are drying up for everything from day care for children of the working poor to people who desperately need mental health counseling…”
• Impasse could end day care for many children, By Brad Bumsted and Debra Erdley, August 12, 2009, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “Jody Van Varenberg isn’t sure how she’ll pay the bills this month at Today’s Tot, her small child-care center in Washington. The state subsidizes many of her children but hasn’t paid Van Varenberg since June. The skeleton budget that Gov. Ed Rendell signed last month hasn’t changed her circumstances. ‘I’m one of the people who still aren’t getting paid,’ Van Varenberg said, adding that she wonders how long child-care operators like herself will be able to hang on. There’s no relief in sight yet for day-care centers across Pennsylvania…”
• Phila. ‘a city being held hostage’, By Daniel Rubin, August 13, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Sign of the times spotted in the Criminal Justice Center: We are out of paper. No copying folks. (Unless you supply!!) Here’s another sign. Defense attorney Sanjai Weaver has started taking SEPTA to work. The court has not paid the former prosecutor and judicial candidate since May, though she continues her court-appointed advocacy. ‘It finally dawned on me last Monday,’ she says, ‘You can’t pay for parking, you can’t pay for the gas.’ She is owed more than $15,000. As the economy has turned downward, Weaver has relied more and more on assignments from judges to represent the poor in criminal cases. Such work now represents close to 90 percent of her income. But government work turns out to have been a gamble…”

• Proposed cuts to Mich. budget hurts poor, By Karen Bouffard, August 6, 2009, Detroit News: “Services for the poor would be decimated under cuts proposed to close Michigan’s $1.8 billion budget hole, according to more than two dozen groups who asked Lansing lawmakers Wednesday to protect vulnerable people from shouldering the state’s economic woes. The coalition of faith-based and human services organizations — from the Food Bank Council of Michigan to the Association of United Ways and the Michigan Catholic Conference — said disproportionate cuts to the state departments of Human Services and Community Health would obliterate the social safety net at a time when unemployment in the state has spiked to 15.2 percent…”
• Welfare to work program is latest budget victim, By Susan Haigh (AP), August 9, 2009, Hartford Courant: “A 13-year-old initiative that helps needy people move from welfare to work is the latest victim of Connecticut’s budget impasse. Programs ranging from on-the-job training to child care stopped as of July 1 for thousands of people - mostly women - who receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, a state cash assistance program that can last 21 months. The July and August executive orders, issued by Gov. M. Jodi Rell to run the state without a permanent two-year budget in place, slashed funding for the Jobs First program, leaving just enough money to cover some staff at the state Department of Labor.

• State cuts to health, welfare programs inflict pain, By Barbara Anderson and E.J. Schultz, August 3, 2009, Fresno Bee: “What will $3.3 billion in cuts to state health and welfare programs mean for the Valley? Children will lose health insurance. Fragile mental health programs will take another hit. Counties will have less money to investigate child abuse and pay foster homes. The list goes on. In the Valley — where poverty rates hover near 20% — the cuts will take a serious toll, said one economist. ‘The ripple effect is enormous,’ said Joseph Penbera, who teaches at California State University, Fresno…”
• Welfare-to-work program takes hit, By Brian Charles, August 3, 2009, The Signal: “California’s program to get people off the welfare rolls and into the work place has been largely gutted by the recently passed state budget, officials said Monday. ‘CalWorks’ - short for California Work Opportunities and Responsibility to Kids program - was launched in California in the mid-1990s in response to federal welfare reform legislation…”

• Cuts in safety net for children go far too deep, Editorial, July 29, 2009, San Jose Mercury News: “Tuesday marked a new low for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his role as a guardian of the health of California’s children. With a stroke of his blue pencil, the governor axed an additional $50 million from the state’s Healthy Families program, which provides health insurance to California’s neediest children. That’s on top of the devastating $144 million in cuts to Healthy Families in the budget deal Schwarzenegger had negotiated with the Legislature last week…”
• Safety net takes hit in this budget, Editorial, July 29, 2009, Sacramento Bee: “Spending on health and welfare programs for the poor is the state government’s second most expensive item, after the public schools. Last year, California taxpayers spent about $29 billion on these services for their less fortunate neighbors. But in the current economic climate, even these essential programs are going under the knife…”

Study finds lower earners use credit as safety net, Associated Press, July 28, 2009, New York Times: “Even before the recession hit full force, people who earn low and middle incomes were tapping credit cards to cover basic living expenses, medical costs and other necessities — and driving up their balances in the process.  The average credit card debt for low- and middle-income households rose 3 percent to $9,827 from $9,536 three years earlier, according to a study released Tuesday by the New York-based nonprofit research and advocacy group Demos. About 42 percent of those surveyed in August said they had more debt than three years earlier, while 10 percent said they had the same amount. Less than half reported having less debt than three years earlier, when the group did its prior survey.   Credit cards were used to cover basic living expenses like rent or mortgage payments, groceries and utilities by more than one-third of the households in the survey. And three out of four people who took part said they used their cards for essential spending like car repairs, home repairs and college expenses…”

• Governor signs budget, vetoes $650 million in spending, By Thadeus Greenson, July 29, 2009, Contra Costa Times: “With a stroke of his pen Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made official what is perhaps the largest reduction in state services California has ever seen. But before signing his name to the state’s revised $85 billion budget, Schwarzenegger used his budget knife to deepen some of the cuts lawmakers approved last week, using his veto power to carve out another $656 million in spending reductions. Schwarzenegger’s vetoes — added to the more than $15 billion in cuts lawmakers approved Friday — drew sharp condemnation from some…”
• Schwarzenegger’s vetoes prompt Democratic threats, By Judy Lin (AP), July 29, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle: “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a revised $85 billion budget and targeted welfare programs for deeper cuts, prompting opposition Democrats to threaten to block his political agenda during his final months in office…”
• County: Governor’s vetoes may hurt kids, elderly, poor, By Tony Burchyns, July 29, 2009, Vallejo Times-Herald: “Solano County officials scrambled Tuesday to analyze the latest round of cuts to California’s budget after the governor used his line-item veto power to save an additional $656 million. One top county official forecast longer waits for services, as well as an increase in the number of abused kids falling through the cracks of the so-called safety net designed to protect society’s most disadvantaged people…”

• D.C. weighs welfare cut as budget gap looms, By Henri E. Cauvin, July 26, 2009, Washington Post: “The Fenty administration wants to save several million dollars by cutting back on welfare benefits for people who are not working or using the city’s help to find a job.  The monthly benefit, which for a family of three is $428, would be cut in half for any recipient deemed employable who does not meet the work requirement for six months. If the recipient were to go another six months without complying, the District would be prepared to cut off benefits altogether, the city’s human services director told advocates for the poor last week…”
• State budget cuts leave safety net strained, By Ray Long, July 26, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “Illinois might have a working budget in place, but there is a broader story behind the numbers: Real people are hurting.  If they have not lost care, they worry the thin reed of stability provided by non-profit, community-based organizations will disappear without state support. Cuts at social service agencies are tearing holes into safety nets for the state’s most vulnerable residents…”
• Parenting programs take big hit from budget cuts, By Dean Olsen, July 18, 2009, State Journal Register: “Hoping to become a cosmetologist someday, Theresa Mercado says she has drawn inspiration from fellow single mothers in a support group that met weekly at the Family Service Center of Sangamon County…”

• States’ budget pain eclipses last recession, By Stephen C. Fehr and Daniel C. Vock, July 21, 2009, Stateline.org: “The current recession — now 19 months long and still going — already has forced states to deal with greater budget shortfalls than they faced in the five years it took them to recover from the last national recession after the 2001 terrorist attacks.  New figures from the National Conference of State Legislatures show that states scrambling to balance their budgets already have closed at least $268.6 billion in gaps between projected spending and revenues since the recession started in December 2007…”
• Safety net for poor, disabled in tatters after plan’s cuts, health care advocates say, By Ken Carlson, July 22, 2009, Modesto Bee: “As details of the state budget deal emerged this week, some health care advocates said the agreement cuts too deeply into safety net programs for the poor and disabled. According to one estimate, a $144 million budget cut to Healthy Families, the low-cost health insurance for the working poor, would result in denying coverage to almost 780,000 children in California…”
• California budget cuts deep into healthcare, schools, By Daniel B. Wood, July 21, 2009, Christian Science Monitor: “Deep cuts in government services including healthcare, prisons, and local government assistance are the likely results of the budget deal struck between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers after negotiations all day Monday. The California legislature will vote as early as Thursday on the deal to close the state’s $26.3 billion budget deficit…”

• Budget cuts hurt Ohio poor, By Mark Curnutte, July 6, 2009, Cincinnati Enquirer: “As Ohio lawmakers and Gov. Ted Strickland continue to wrangle over the state budget, county social service agencies are clear on one message: Further budget cuts are cutting into muscle, not bone, as the recession entangles more people in need of benefits…”
• Coalition defends CalWorks, which governor targets for cuts, By Duane W. Gang, July 7, 2009, Press-Enterprise: “A statewide coalition of counties pushed back against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday, saying a welfare-to-work program targeted for cuts is vital to boosting the state’s economic recovery.  Schwarzenegger earlier this year called for the elimination of CalWorks and, on Friday, said waste and fraud in the program and other social welfare efforts is contributing to the state’s fiscal woes…”

Safety net is fraying for the very poor, By Erik Eckholm, July 4, 2009, New York Times: “Government ’safety net’ programs like Social Security and food stamps have pulled growing numbers of Americans out of poverty since the mid-1990s. But even before the current recession, these programs were providing less help to the most desperately poor, mainly nonworking families with children, according to a new study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a private group in Washington…”

State welfare rolls feel impact of recession, By Pam Fessler, July 3, 2009, National Public Radio: “Welfare caseloads have been going up in most states over the past year, but not in every state. In fact, cases are going down in some of the hardest-hit areas. That’s raised questions about whether the program is an adequate safety net for families in need…”