Child care cuts eyed: Panel proposes stricter welfare rules to governor

Poor families would face a harder time getting help with child care bills and stricter rules for receiving aid under proposed changes sent to Gov. Christine Gregoire Thursday to close a $50 million hole in the welfare program's annual budget.

After Gregoire took office this year, she discovered that the state spent far more on welfare than was budgeted. The governor asked a panel of experts to recommend ways to improve the program and save money, launching the first major review of state welfare since a landmark 1996 federal overhaul.

On Thursday, the experts presented the governor with their ideas, which include a tighter limit on who receives child care subsidies. In Seattle, where the city has its own day care program, a cut in state subsidies could mean a longer wait for child care.

The panel offered a long list of changes, including tightening limits on how long some residents get welfare, imposing sanctions on recipients who don't cooperate and improving assessments and reviews, according to a draft of the report.

Long before a final decision, the proposals are sparking an outcry among anti-poverty groups. If all of the proposals are accepted, people will have a harder time getting off welfare, said Jon Gould, deputy director of the Children's Alliance in Seattle.

"We would turn the corner towards a punitive approach to families playing by the rules," Gould said.

The proposals are far from final. Gregoire now must decide whether to accept any of the ideas, and she is expected to work through options with state lawmakers in the next week.

The "feeling is how can we be even better at helping people move to self sufficiency and stay within the budget," said Gregoire's spokeswoman, Kerry Coughlin. "The governor is extremely supportive of child care being an essential link in this process."

Doing nothing, though, doesn't appear to be an option.

"WorkFirst, Washington's version of welfare reform, is not financially sustainable as it is currently designed. Either more money will be needed or major cutbacks will be required," the heads of the Department of Social and Health Services, Employment Security Department, State Board for Community and Technical Colleges and the Office of Financial Management said in a memo to Gregoire dated May 11.

The child care proposal is sure to be one of the most controversial ideas, threatening to reverberate far beyond the 2,250 families predicted to lose subsidies. The proposal would lower the income cap from families earning up to 200 percent of the poverty line to 175 percent.

Seattle would likely respond by expanding its own program, which helps mostly working poor families, to those shut out of state assistance.

That means more families would compete for city child care subsidies, creating longer waits for aid, city officials say. Some parents might even stop working because it would be cheaper to stay home and care for their kids.

"The state (panel) is plugging a budget hole with something that could result in families needing assistance again," said Billie Young, who manages child development programs for Seattle's Human Services Department.

People such as Tanya Bushaw would wait even longer for help. Last month, Bushaw, 25, got into the Seattle child care program after a year on the waiting list.

Even with a job as a land developer that pays her more than $30,000 a year, Bushaw couldn't pay her $10,800 annual child care bill as a single parent.


		Joshua Trujillo / P-I
	Single mom Tanya Bushaw picks up her 7-month-old daughter, Ava, from a child care agency in West Seattle on Thursday.

The West Seattle native considered getting a second job, even though it would cut deeply into the few hours a day she has with her 7-month-old daughter, Ava.

"I just really don't know what I would have done to be honest," Bushaw said.

Bushaw's quandary highlights that child care costs are so high these days even those in the middle class struggle with bills that can top $16,000 a year.

"I like to think I fit in middle class, (but I'm) dipping my toe into the poor," said Bushaw, who lives with her parents and pays $300 a month in rent. "I could not live on my own right now."

The first comprehensive review of state welfare programs since the 1996 federal reforms was sparked by both a desire for savings and improvements.

The problem is federal funding has remained frozen during the past eight years while the state has funneled some of the agency's money to other programs, according to a draft of the expert panel's report.

Now, the state must consider cutting costs by $85 million to bring the welfare agency's $1.6 billion, two-year budget into balance, the draft said.

Tony Lee of the Fremont Public Association says there is no need for cuts. He argues the state transferred hundreds of millions of dollars in welfare funds to other programs from 1999 to 2001, even as welfare caseloads dropped.

The governor, though, also is interested in improving a welfare program that slashed its caseload by 40 percent since 1997 and expanded services.

The panel of experts, for example, proposed improving the agency's assessments to speed up job training and job searches, according to the draft report.

The panel also suggested stiffening sanctions. For example, if parents don't participate for six months in programs aimed at getting them a job, the family could lose all of its benefits, the draft said.

Although the governor hasn't made any final decisions, Coughlin said, she wants to move quickly.

"We need to begin to make changes."

P-I reporter Paul Nyhan can be reached at 206-448-8145 or paulnyhan@seattlepi.com.

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