As more families seek aid, Ohio is scraping the bottom of its federal welfare money stash
By Catherine Candisky
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
For Ohio's neediest families, a bad situation is about to get worse.
The state is about to run out of extra federal welfare money, forcing spending cuts of more than $300 million next year unless new revenues are found.
The Strickland administration is working on the upcoming state budget and isn't ready to talk about what will be cut.
"There are certainly tough decisions ahead," said Keith Dailey, spokesman for the governor.
The crisis comes as the number of Ohioans seeking job training, cash assistance, food stamps, subsidized health care and emergency help is climbing. The state rolls for Medicaid, food stamps and the Women, Infants and Children aid program are at all-time highs.
"At a time when our economy is the worst and people have the most need, we have the least to help them," said Jack Frech, director of the Athens County Department of Job and Family Services.
Shrinking state revenues have forced two rounds of budget cuts this year, and Gov. Ted Strickland is likely to order a third in early 2009.
Advocates for the poor and the county agencies serving them say they are bracing for an additional 10 percent cut on top of all that in the 2010-11 state budget Strickland will unveil early next year.
Officials stress that the financial crunch will not stop eligible Ohioans from receiving mandated benefits such as food stamps and health coverage, but they are likely to wait longer for help.
State budget cuts are forcing county agencies across the state to lay off workers and slash discretionary services such as job-training and work-support programs that have helped thousands find and keep employment.
"When people come to us, they are in crisis," said Joel Potts, a senior policy analyst with the Ohio Job and Family Services Directors' Association. "We are the safety net, the last stop people turn to. If we don't have the people to provide the service or the programs to meet the need, then we're not filling that need.
"These are deep cuts, and they will be painful."
The Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services in Cincinnati will cut 350 positions by the end of next year.
This month, Hocking County in southeastern Ohio abolished most of its job-training programs and other services aimed at helping low-income residents find and retain work.
And Franklin County is eliminating about 65 jobs through attrition and scaling back job-readiness, youth, and alcohol- and drug-prevention programs.
"There's never a good time for cuts, but at this time, we have to serve much greater numbers with less resources," said Douglas Lumpkin, director of the Franklin County Department of Job and Family Services.
Countywide enrollment in food stamps and Medicaid has risen about 10 percent in the past year, he said.
The federal government provides Ohio a $728 million block grant each year to assist low-income families; the state is required to add about $400 million to that.
Since the landmark 1996 Welfare Reform Act, the goal has been to help the poor finish high school, get job training, find work and keep it.
For about a decade, Ohio underspent its welfare money, building up a reserve that once reached nearly $1 billion. But in the past three years, the state has spent down that surplus and projections show it will be gone by the end of the year.
In fact, state officials now estimate that Ohio's Temporary Assistance to Needy Families budget will be at least $5.2 million in the red by June 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Rising costs from the state's subsidized child-care program are squeezing money from other efforts to make Ohioans self-sufficient, such as job training. State figures show Ohio is spending 132 percent more on its child-care program this year than it did a decade ago; the number of children served is up 41 percent.
Michelle Albast, chief of the Bureau of Child Care and Development for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, said costs are higher because the program is serving more children and provider fees are up.
"The good news is we're serving more families and the cost of care is increasing, and we've been able to keep up with that," she said.
But it's at the expense of other programs, county officials say.
Among the Hocking County cuts was a truck-driving training school with a 100 percent placement rate.
"We cut job training, car repairs, work clothing, assistance for car insurance, tuition for training programs -- what we have left is a winter clothes program for kids and some services for individuals who are in some type of disaster," said Robert Smith, director of that county's Job and Family Services agency.
Hamilton County is coping with the loss of about $8 million over three years.
"We've already started laying off and we have had to reduce some services like welfare diversion, early childhood intervention services, job services and summer youth employment," said Brian Gregg, spokesman for the county's Department of Job and Family Services.
Across the state, county agencies say requests for assistance are growing and a good chunk of those asking for help have never sought it before.
A recent survey of Hamilton County applicants revealed that more than a third were either new to the system or had not asked for assistance in several years.
"I don't think folks realize how quickly things got this bad, and I think the system is going to be overwhelmed for a long time," Potts said.
