Job training by D.C. welfare program is criticized, By Henri E. Cauvin, November 12, 2009, Washington Post: “At a time when unemployment is hitting the District hard, a new review of the city’s welfare program has found that it is pushing recipients to work but is not providing the skills and support they need to land decent-paying jobs. The study of the District’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program concluded that although the city has opportunities for substantive educational and vocational training, TANF recipients are too often kept in the dark about such help…”

Aid program will demand more, By Lynn Bonner, October 23, 2009, News and Observer: “The state’s 15-year-old welfare program, Work First, will begin living up to its name this year by requiring adult recipients to work, go to school, or job hunt before they get their monthly benefits checks. A handful of counties already have a “pay after performance” rule. The state Department of Health and Human Services made the pay rule a statewide policy this month, though it sent out payments as usual a few weeks ago to give the 8,900 households that have to live by the new policy a month to adapt to the change. Adults in this group have agreements with their counties that say they will work, look for work or attend classes for a set amount of time each month. In the past, recipients got their money whether or not they stuck to the plan. In November, payments won’t be automatic anymore, and social workers will expect recipients to show that they’ve complied, or have a good reason for not following through, before they get their money. The state made the change because it falls short of federal goals for getting welfare recipients working or on a steady path toward getting jobs…”

California’s zigzag on welfare rules worries experts, By Erik Eckholm, October 6, 2009, New York Times: “As he pressed state lawmakers over the summer to close a record budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lathered scorn on the state’s welfare-to-work program. He called it too lenient on the work requirement and overly generous in its benefits. At one point, he proposed eliminating it, then compromised to make it tougher. So Anna Zendejas, a welfare recipient in a farm town 50 miles west of here, was more than a little surprised to get a letter recently saying that she did not need to work to collect her check - in effect, a return to the much-derided welfare approach that existed before a national overhaul in the 1990s. It was no fluke. This fall, tens of thousands of Californians will be given a similar choice as the state embraces a startling reversal in some of its welfare policies for the next two years…”

L.A. County may spend money to try to save money on welfare, By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, September 20, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “With the cost of helping Los Angeles County’s welfare recipients expected to hit $1 billion by the end of this fiscal year, county officials are pushing a plan to shift the burden of some of the most hard-core unemployed to the federal government. If they succeed, local taxpayers could save tens of millions of dollars, and thousands of disabled welfare recipients would see their aid more than triple. But the hurdles could prove high. County officials propose spending $7.2 million to help applicants through a notoriously difficult process to qualify for federal disability assistance. The question remains: Does it make sense for the county to gamble millions now with massive state budget cuts looming?…”

• 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…”

• Budget to reshape the Golden State, By Mitchell Landsberg, July 22, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “Students and the poor will notice the biggest changes from downscaling of the government.  Roads will be rougher, classrooms fuller and textbooks more tattered. The odds of encountering someone fresh out of prison will almost certainly be higher.  If the budget deal crafted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and top legislative leaders is passed by the Legislature and survives the inevitable court challenges, California will undergo perhaps the biggest downscaling of government in its history…”
• Cities vow to fight ‘reckless’ state budget proposal in court, By Denis C. Theriault and Ken McLaughlin, July 21, 2009, San Jose Mercury News: “The deal to balance California’s budget by relying heavily on a plan to transfer $4.4 billion in local tax revenue to Sacramento had cities and counties across the state crying foul Tuesday.  As more details emerged about the tax take-away — twice as large as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had initially sought — leaders from already-struggling South Bay cities were left facing a new round of budget cuts far steeper than most had anticipated…”
• California budget deal to sting schools and poor, By Sally Connell, July 21, 2009, San Luis Obispo Tribune: “Cuesta College students may see the cost for each unit they take increase from $20 to $26.  Public school officials are expecting that $6 billion in cuts statewide will translate into local school districts being unable to hire back employees who received layoff notices.  And the county’s working poor on welfare will see money cut for child care and for buying equipment and clothing they could use at a new job…”

• State plugs budget hole with Medicaid money, By Beth Musgrave, July 21, 2009, Lexington Herald-Leader: “The state was in the black for the fiscal year that ended June 30, but only because it received a loan from the Medicaid program, which had additional money from the federal stimulus program. Now state officials are trying to determine how much money state agencies will have to cut from this year’s budget, which began July 1…”
• CalWORKS: Is it costing too much?, By Steve Wiegand, July 19, 2009, Sacramento Bee: “It’s the kind of statistic that makes radio talk show hosts drool: California is home to about 12 percent of all Americans – and more than 30 percent of all Americans on welfare. Critics of the state’s welfare program, called CalWORKs, say it’s clear proof that the system is flabby and overly beneficent, particularly as compared to other states…”
• Governor, legislative leaders begin building support for their budget pact, By Evan Halper and Shane Goldmacher, July 21, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders will begin working today to line up votes for the budget agreement they reached Monday evening to close a $26.3-billion deficit and allow the state to begin paying all of its bills again…”
• Budget breakthrough solves California’s long fiscal nightmare, By Steven Harmon, July 20, 2009, Contra Costa Times: “A tense, months-long standoff over ever-shrinking resources gave way Monday to a deal to bridge California’s $26.3 billion deficit…”

• Stagnant welfare caseloads create puzzle, By Ron Jenkins (AP), July 11, 2009, Tulsa World: “Anti-poverty workers say it is a puzzle that more people have not applied for welfare assistance in the midst of the current economic downturn.  They also cite statistics over the last five years showing declines in public assistance caseloads and a corresponding increase in the percentage of Oklahoma applicants denied aid…”
• California budget woes worry some on welfare, By Kelley Weiss, July 14, 2009, National Public Radio: “California lawmakers say they are near a solution to close the state’s $26 billion budget gap. That solution is likely to include unprecedented cuts to health and welfare programs. For California families who rely on multiple state services, those cuts could be a double or triple whammy…”

• Schwarzenegger’s welfare cuts angers Dems, By Judy Lin, July 8, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle: “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s insistence on cost-cutting measures to weed out what he has described as “waste, fraud and abuse” in California’s social service programs has struck a nerve with Democrats, welfare advocates and the frail…”
• Welfare-to-work program a target for state budget cuts, By Timm Herdt, July 9, 2009, Ventura County Star: “Renewing his insistence that policy changes must be part of any agreement to balance California’s budget and stop the flow of IOUs, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday put the spotlight on the state’s welfare-to-work program, which he called ‘the most generous of all the states’…”
• Critics say Schwarzenegger scapegoating the poor for budget problems, By Steven Harmon, July 9, 2009, Fremont Argus: “On the stump, as he tries to sell his deficit-cutting plan to voters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has tried to show a softer side toward those who will get hit hardest, often returning to a variation of a line he rolled out in an address to the Legislature in May: ‘I see the pain in their eyes and hear the fear in their voice’…”