Easing the Welfare Changes

Gov. Wilson deserves credit for reversing his earlier hard-line stance on food stamp cuts scheduled to take effect this month. He is now seeking a six-month extension from Washington to give counties more time to deal with implementing the federal welfare reform law.

The governor initially proposed exemptions only for counties with high unemployment rates and a shortage of jobs. Wilson has now broadened his request to cover all counties seeking extra time. That makes sense because of the complexity of the new law and the number of counties that either lack workfare programs or need to expand them to allow targeted recipients to avoid the cuts.

The new welfare law limits single, able-bodied adults who are not raising children to three months of food stamps per year. Current recipients range from unemployed adults who have exhausted savings and have not been able to find work in spite of diligent efforts, to chronically homeless men and women who have no recent work history and depend routinely on General Relief, which provides $212 a month to live on in Los Angeles.

All told, it’s a big task ahead. California counties need adequate time to implement the new welfare reform law.