Special panel on welfare wants aid linked to inflation > State’s budget woes undercut indexing proposal

AUGUSTA — The chairman of a special commission to study the adequacy of welfare payments in Maine said Wednesday more money is needed to help recipients meet rising expenses and urged lawmakers to at least build in inflation offsets on basic payments.

Sen. N. Paul Gauvreau, D-Lewiston, unveiled a wide-ranging list of proposals designed to boost state support for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, but acknowledged that full funding this year would be virtually impossible.

Bowing to the state budget crunch, Gauvreau listed two priority items, saying, “we’re not naive.”

One would increase payment levels and need standards annually to match inflation, at an estimated first-year cost of $1.9 million. A second proposal would direct state Human Services Department officials to devise ways to make greater use of available federal money to ease housing costs for welfare recipients.

Gov. John R. McKernan told reporters later that, “obviously we wish we could do more for everybody, … but there’s only so much money to go around.”

McKernan cast doubt on the likelihood of any move to come up with the 5-percent indexing envisioned by the special commission. And he said even a smaller hike would demand that legislators “plug a lot of holes and find a way to support Lotto America” — one of the most controversial pieces of his package of spending cutbacks and revenue increases needed to offset a potential $210 million budget deficit.

The AFDC program, which is federally structured, is funded jointly by the states and Congress. Currently, Maine’s standard of need, which sets eligibility limits, establishes the cost of basic necessities for a family of three at $7,824 a year, or $652 a month.

Maine’s maximum grant is $5,436 annually for such a family, or $453 a month.

According to the commission report, more than 52,000 people were receiving AFDC payments in Maine as of January, about 4.3 percent of the state population.

The number of children receiving welfare aid totaled more than 33,000, about 10.7 percent of all Maine children under age 18.

For the long term, the commission also recommended new supplemental housing, utility and clothing payments, and a five-year program to raise maximum benefits to 100 percent, and eligibility standards to 125 percent, of the 1989 federal poverty level.

Maine’s current maximum grant is only 54 percent of the 1989 poverty level, the special commission said.

The cost of the five-year program to boost benefit levels was pegged at $37.7 million.