Tuesday, February 29, 2000
At odds over welfare spending
State agency wants more; legislators demur
BY SPENCER HUNT
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS — Criticized for sitting on hundreds of millions in unspent welfare dollars, state agency officials want lawmakers to let them have another $235 million.
The Ohio Department of Human Services wants to raise its share of federal funding for welfare programs to $652 million this year, up from a $417 million spending level the General Assembly approved in 1999. But the agency temporarily withdrew its request Tuesday after lawmakers on the Ohio Controlling Board asked why the money was needed.
With unemployment holding steady at a low 4 percent, Rep. Robert Corbin, R-Dayton, says the state should be spending less, not more, on welfare. The agency request also comes on the heels of a study that claims Ohio is hoarding $734 million in unspent welfare benefits.
“That was another reason we decided to hold this (request), until we make sure where we are,” Mr. Corbin said of the study. “We're concerned about what the department is doing with this.”
Agency spokesman Jon Allen said the state is not hoarding welfare cash. Wayne Sholes, Human Services' assistant director, said the $235 million increase would continue payments to needy families and beef up county programs that help people get off welfare.
“We're going to wait until the next Controlling Board (meeting) to make sure the membership understands the need for the additional money,” Mr. Sholes said. “We're very willing to sit down with them and talk with them so their questions are cleared up.”
The big question is whether the agency should spend all the federal money it is entitled to, or a lesser amount lawmakers think is necessary.
Ohio is entitled to $652 million this year from the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program. Records provided by Human Services, however, show the agency spent $427.2 million less than it took in from the federal government over the past three fiscal years.
Figures like that led lawmakers to approve $417 million in spending in the state budget they passed in 1999. The seven-member Controlling Board has the power to remove that spending cap, if agency officials can convince the panel that it's necessary.
Mr. Corbin, the House Finance Committee chairman and a Controlling Board member, said the agency was not helped by a study released last week by a liberal policy research institute.
The Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported that Ohio has a total of $734 million in unspent welfare funds. The study of all 50 states places Ohio behind only California, with $1.6 billion in unspent funds, and New York ($1.1 billion).
The study chastises Ohio and other states for not spending the surplus money on programs that would help people train for jobs, find jobs and get off welfare. But Mr. Allen said the agency already plans to spend $584 million in surplus money on those kinds of programs.
Whether the agency can spend another $235 million on top of that amount is a question lawmakers on the Controlling Board and agency officials will discuss next week.
“We want to sit down and talk about that so that everybody is on the same page,” Mr. Corbin said.
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