Legislative Action Feb. 1989

Legislative Action

Standard of Need: yardstick for welfare

By BILL KEMP

Like so many terms encountered in state government, the "Standard of Need" for welfare recipients is frequently heard but rarely understood. When public aid funding has been at issue, the term has muddled the parameters of the debate as often as it has clarified them.

The Department of Public Aid has calculated that a family of three in Chicago needs $740 a month "to maintain a livelihood compatible with health and well-being." Called the Standard of Need, this level was established to provide the state with an accurate definition of welfare recipients' needs. The political and economic realities in Illinois, though, have dictated that actual cash grants be much lower than the Standard of Need. Excluding food stamps and energy assistance payments, a family in 1989 receives a $342 cash grant, $398 less than the department's defined standard. As of January 1, 1989, welfare recepients are receiving 46.2 percent of the Standard of Need.

Monthly cash payments to welfare recipients are made through the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) or General Assistance (GA) programs. Both are funded jointly by the state and federal government. The Standard of Need is adjusted each year through the Consumer Price Index. The standard is modified to

Monthly income for three-member Chicago family on AFDC, 1989

basic grant
food stamps
energy assistance $342
228
18

total $588

standard of need $740

Source: Department of Public Aid.

account for the number of family members and cost of housing in the county where the individual or family lives.

The Department of Public Aid calculates the percentage of Standard of Need being met by the state to include food stamps and the energy assistance allowance. If these two additional monthly supplements are included, a family of three in 1989 receives 79 percent of the Standard of Need. Therefore, depending on whether one excludes or includes food stamps and the monthly energy assistance grant, Illinois is meeting either 46 percent or 79 percent of its own standard in 1989.

Before 1981, the Department of Public Aid defined the state Standard of Need as whatever the cash grants were. The state thus met the federal requirement for a standard through what welfare advocates were calling circular reasoning. "The standard was not tied to reality," the department's administrative director of employment and social services Randale Valenti said, "It was a lie," said Bob Lehrer of the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, "in the sense that the Standard of Need is supposed to define the minimum level needed to survive and at that time it was not even close."

Due to pressure from welfare advocacy organizations and an understanding that the standard was unrealistic, the department in October of 1981 adopted a "realistic standard" for welfare recipients. Conventional wisdom held that once a realistic standard was adopted, it could become a powerful tool to illustrate the relatively low payment levels to welfare recipients. The hope of the department and welfare organizations was that the newly redrafted standard would "enable proponents of public aid to say 'look how inadequate the public aid grants really are,' " according to Jerome Stermer, executive director of Voices for Illinois Children.

The early optimism of the standard's potential has been lost in the fiscal conservatism of the 1980s. "What many of us thought would be a good advocacy tool has become nothing," Stermer said. The value of the cash grants has continued to decline since the enactment of a realistic standard. Illinois now is tied for second among states in the disparity between per capita income and AFDC/GA benefit levels, according to a report titled "Holes in the Safety Net" by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Douglas Dobmeyer, executive director of the Public Welfare Coalition, said that the cash payments fall far short of what is needed. A single individual on General Assistance receives $154 a month. The average monthly rent for a single room occupany apartment in Chicago is $225 a month, according to Dobmeyer. He said the current level of cash grants has contributed to the homeless problem in Illinois. "A typical family of three has to spend 80 percent or more of their cash grant for housing," he said.

While the Standard of Need must be updated each year, the actual cash grants have received only two modest increases since 1981. The monthly grant for a family of three has increased one dollar since 1986. Illinois is only one of 10 states in which the cash grants are less than half the state Standard of Need, according to the "Holes in the Safety Net" report. "No one has said the amount of payment is an adequate amount; there is simply not enough money," Valenti said.

The Department of Public Aid and Illinois' welfare recipients find themselves in a situation similar to that of elementary, secondary and higher education, corrections, mental health and family services. Any large increase in the department's budget will have to be tied to the passage of an income tax hike. But public aid funding differs from other state priorities because welfare recipients have little influence in state or national politics. Increased funding for welfare remains politically unpopular. Rep. Jack L. Kubik (R-43, Forest Park), co-chair of the Citizens Council on Public Aid, said any increase in cash payments will have to be coupled with additional welfare reforms on the state level to generate enough support. "We ought to encourage people to become self-sufficient, and most people believe this system is not working," he said.

Dobmeyer stressed that the ongoing efforts to increase education funding should not overshadow the needs of public aid. Nearly half of all welfare recipients in Illinois are under the age of 18, thus public aid is directly tied to education, Dobmeyer

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said. Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D-26, Chicago) said she is confident any increase in revenue will be for "general spending purposes" that will include public aid.

Mary Ann Langston, director of policy and planning for the Department of Public Aid, said the cash grants were never expected to reach 100 percent of the Standard of Need. The department has been promoting employment opportunities that would not decrease a recipient's grant level. In addition, a recipient may file for paternity action, finding the mother or father of the children, that can increase monthly grants $50. "These programs are available today under current rules and do not require additional funding," Public Aid's Valenti said.

The Public Welfare Coalition last spring proposed a 15 percent increase in the cash grants and a floor at 55 percent of the Standard of Need. The floor would force the General Assembly to raise the cash grant in proportion to the yearly increase in the standard. Neither was given serious consideration. Gov. James R. Thompson coupled a 5 percent grant increase with the failed drive to secure an income tax increase last session. Jeffrey C. Miller, Thompson's chief of staff, said the governor has not determined if grant increases will be part of a tax hike package this year. The Department of Public Aid estimates that for every 1 percentage point increase in the monthly cash grants, $10 million in additional revenue is needed. Dobmeyer said the failed Thompson proposal of last session still would have had little impact on welfare recepients. A 5 percent increase in the cash grant for a family of three in Chicago would be a net gain of only 17 dollars. For a Chicagoan on General Assistance, the gain would be under eight dollars a month.

The AFDC mother of two worries more about basic necessities than the annual calculation of the Standard of Need. The standard may illustrate why she needs more money, but in seven years it has yet to help her get more.

Bill Kemp, a 1988 graduate of Illinois State University, is completing a master's degree in public affairs reporting at Sangamon State University. He works in the Illinois Issues State-house bureau.

Pay raises: 'yes' for state's attorneys; 'no' for leadership in legislature

The 85th General Assembly concluded in in typical Illinois political fashion. House members were not able to file out of their chamber until 9:30 p.m. on January 10, only to have most of them return 14 hours later to be sworn in as members of the 86th General Assembly. The last-minute fireworks came courtesy of a long-awaited pension bill with solid bipartisan support. It failed because unrelated salary increase provisions for many legislators were tacked on in the final days.

The omnibus pension bill, H.B. 253, and a bill to strengthen pension funding, S.B. 1470, were amendatorily vetoed by Gov. James R. Thompson and had died in the fall veto session. Both were resurrected in the final days of the 85th General Assembly as part of another bill, H.B. 4213. The final product emerged from a summit that included the legislative leaders and the governor.

Pension provisions that included Chicago firefighters, Chicago Park District employees, teachers and others had little effect on the final vote. The controversy resulted from a piggybacked provision that would have given a $6,000 annual salary to legislative committee chairmen and minority spokesmen who are not paid extra for those positions. The House and Senate leadership would have received larger increases. The House speaker, the Senate president and the minority leaders of the House and Senate would have been given a yearly increase of $16,000.

The bill passed the Senate with little debate the last day of the session, but it bogged down in the House. Both House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-30, Chicago) and Minority Leader Lee A. Daniels (R-46, Elmhurst) took their members to caucus and spent two hours devising floor stategy. When they returned, it was uncertain whether the salary provisions had key Republican support.

But it was evident as the debate started that Republican support for the bill would be thin at best. Rep. Timothy Johnson (R-104, Urbana) assailed the recent 50 percent salary hike for Congress and asked the House not to follow suit. Rep. Karen Hasara (R-100, Springfield) said it is "disgusting that we let politics affect the good of retired teachers in the state."

Rep. Roger P. McAuliffe (R-14, Chicago) asked the House to overlook the pay raises and pass the bill on the merits of the pension provisions, and Rep. Gordon L. Ropp (R-88, Normal) asked Madigan why controversial bills tend to be a product of summitry and not the normal legislative process.

The votes came slowly as legislators explained their votes amid frequent glances to the House tote board. With many legislators realizing a yes vote on the pension bill, and thus yes to a legislative pay hike, could become a campaign issue in 1990, support dwindled. With 46 yes votes, 14 short of that needed for passage, Madigan reminded the House that the bill was one vote short of qualifying for postponed consideration. House rules allow a bill that does not pass but receives 47 votes to be called for a vote a second time. But more importantly for many legislators, a bill on postponed consideration has no recorded vote and therefore no printed roll call to be used as election fodder.

As a counter to Madigan, Republican floor leader Rep. Thomas J, McCracken (R-81, Downers Grove) said he would ask for a verification to assure that all lawmakers recorded as voting "yes" were present. Democrats feared that under the scrutiny of a verification they would be unable to muster 47 votes. Support immediately collapsed as representatives one by one changed their vote from yes to no. The final vote was 15 yes, 96 no, and three voted present, including Madigan. Madigan said afterwards that the state pension systems remain sound and that a new omnibus pension bill will be one of the issues facing the 86th General Asembly.

Another set of salary increases, for state's attorneys, drew much less controversy. The largest hikes, $15,000, would go to the Cook County state's attorney and to the state's attorneys in counties with populations between 10,000 and 20,000. The next largest hike, $14,500 would go to state's attorneys in the 48 other counties with populations over 30,000. The state's attorneys in the 12 counties with populations between 20,000 and 30,000 would see a $14,000 increase. And in the 14 smallest counties, with populations less than 10,000, state's attorneys would see a boost of $5,000. Thompson is expected to sign the bill.

Bill Kemp

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