Needy Mainers lobby for hike in assistance

AUGUSTA – As a recipient of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Holly Mitchell can’t afford to turn up her nose at the prospect of a few extra dollars.

“I’m not ashamed to ask,” said the Orono single mother, who told the Health and Human Services Committee on Monday that finding the money to pay for the basic necessities often could be a struggle.

Mitchell was one of a number of TANF recipients who said during a public hearing that they support LD 1209, a bill to increase benefits by 10 percent in 2001.

“It would help me buy a bag or two of groceries,” said Mitchell, who would glean an additional $34.50 each month.

Others took up the chant. Despite her frugality, Betty Barkowsky Knowles is hard-pressed to pay all her bills or even put gas in the car, even with the help of the monthly TANF check.

“I’m in fear that I’m going to lose my home,” said the Lincoln mother, who cooks on a hot plate and in an old microwave because she can’t afford a stove.

Sponsored by Sen. Anne Rand, D-Portland, LD 1209 would bring a family of three with no other income up to a monthly benefit of $507. The bill then requires the department to continue increasing benefits each year until Maine reaches the average of the other New England states – $576 for a family of three – by 2005.

Maine’s benefits are the lowest in New England, $131 below the area average, according to Rand, who pointed out that TANF never has had an automatic annual adjustment.

“As a result, it’s lost 28 percent in purchasing power over the last decade,” said Rand.

In 1990, when TANF was known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the maximum monthly benefit for a mother and two children was $453, according to Rand. Today it’s $461, only $8 more, she said.

“The depth of poverty among families receiving TANF benefits is much greater today than it was a decade ago,” she said.

But Judy Williams, director of the Bureau of Family Independence, was concerned about the bill’s price tag.

Department calculations indicate that a 10 percent increase in TANF benefits would cost $13.8 million in 2002 and $32.9 million the next year, she said in her written testimony.

Since the federal block grant through which the state receives its TANF funds already is allocated, the increase would fall upon the state, Williams said.

Compared to other states, Maine isn’t at a disadvantage, according to Williams. TANF households with additional income can retain up to $135 per month for a family of three before the TANF grant is affected. That means the family could have a combined income of up to $596, which exceeds the maximum in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and is only $4 less than New Hampshire’s maximum, she said.

But Judy Guay, president of the Maine Association of Interdependent Neighborhoods, a group for low-income people, said the increase is needed desperately, especially for the 19,000 children who receive TANF benefits each month.

“It’s impossible for even the most caring and clever parent to provide enough food for her family to eat,” said Guay, who served on the Bangor School Committee for 13 years.

“Some children came to school having not had enough for supper the night before,” Guay said in her written testimony. “It’s a proven fact that children who are not well-nourished have trouble learning.”

In fact, poverty may be most damaging for younger children, according to Elinor Goldberg of the Maine Children’s Alliance.

Goldberg handed in written testimony prepared by Lynn Davey, director of Kids Count, the annual status report on Maine children issued each year by the MCA.

“Living without the income to meet basic needs creates considerable financial pressure on families that, in turn, has a range of negative influence on family life and children’s development,” Davey said, citing inadequate health care and lack of parental engagement.

The conclusion of the public hearing found Mary Henderson, who advocates for low-income people as an attorney with the Maine Equal Justice Project, cautiously optimistic.

“Everybody universally realizes that [TANF] benefits are totally inadequate,” she said. “So hopefully where there’s a will there’s a way.”

A work session on the bill is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday in Room 202 of the State Office Building.