Welfare reform is on the chopping block.

        Hamilton County's Department of Human Services (DHS), the agency that provides programs to poor people and is supposed to shepherd them off welfare, suggested $42.6 million in cuts to county commissioners Wednesday.

        The agency would hack by two-thirds the amount of money the county spends on welfare reform. The cuts are deemed necessary because there is less money coming from the state and federal governments.

        DHS director Don Thomas said the cuts could signal an end to welfare reform.

        “One of our greatest fears is those people on the margins, who just made it off welfare and are hanging on by their fingernails, will lapse back into the welfare cycle,” Mr. Thomas said.

        The county's welfare rolls declined 69 percent from 1992 to 1999. Under welfare reform, poor people are given three years to find work or have their benefits cut off.

        To accomplish that, Hamilton County was spending more than $60 million per year on programs to provide job training, transportation, child care and more.

        Welfare reform also included preventive measures, including drug rehabilitation, programs to help pregnant teens finish high school and more. Contracts in all of those areas are threatened.

        Commissioner Tom Neyer said it was a sad day.

        “Some of the greatest accomplishments we've been able to make in local government are about to be reversed,” Mr. Neyer said. Commissioners will consider the cuts for at least three weeks before acting on the suggestions.

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