Tuesday, February 3, 2004
Page 7
AFFAIRS OF STATE (Column)
One-Third of the State’s Population Collects Handouts
By DAVID KLINE
If you look up “welfare state” in the dictionary, you might see a map of California.
The equivalent of one-third of the state’s population receives some form of taxpayer-funded assistance, according to statistics included in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal.
In this state of 36.5 million people, more than 6.8 million are on Medi-Cal alone. Another 1.3 million receive checks from the state’s primary welfare program, CalWORKS, and 1.8 million collect from the SSI/SSP program for seniors and disabled people with low income and few assets.
The caseloads of all the state’s assistance programs add up to 12,017,224 people. State officials project the number to grow by 294,325 in the next fiscal year.
These numbers don’t reflect the exact number of people who are getting help, because it’s common for one person to collect benefits from several programs—Medi-Cal, food stamps, payments for children, and so forth.
Nor do the figures account for the 162,307 prisoners and 4,055 wards of the California Youth Authority who get free room and board courtesy of the taxpayers.
Then there are the paychecks for the 31,000 state workers who keep the welfare programs operating and the 20,000 prison guards.
Even with the imprecision, the numbers shed light on why the state government can’t keep its books balanced.
Taxpayers are paying an average of $5,400 a year for each of those 12 million health and welfare cases. The money is used for rehab programs for alcoholics, foster care for abused children, hospitals for mentally ill patients and food stamps for people who can’t find work.
That spending comes on top of the money used for more traditional government necessities like highways, public schools, courts, police and firefighters.
Unfortunately, the state can’t afford all of these obligations, as evidenced by our annual budget shortfalls.
This spring, as the state budget negotiations begin in earnest, lawmakers will be required to consider cutting back on the health and welfare programs. They’ll have to reduce benefit levels for recipients or reduce the number of recipients by tightening up the eligibility rules—maybe both.
None of these reductions will be popular with the people who receive assistance—or their very vocal and politically active advocates—but one look at the numbers tells us that something’s got to give.
No, the state cannot simply cut off payments to those in need. Nor can it continue to spend money it doesn’t have. Lawmakers must look for sensible, humane ways to pare down the 12 million handouts.
— Capitol News Service
Copyright 2004, Metropolitan News Company