March 27, 2003

VIA E-MAIL TO: editorial@finance-rep.senate.gov

SUBJECT: TANF REAUTHORIZATION – A Local County Perspective

Ramsey County, home to the Minnesota State Capitol and the county with the second largest responsibility for TANF programs in the state, urges the Senate Finance Committee to support policies in the reauthorization of TANF that will allow the most successful elements of welfare reform to continue:

· More than 8,000 Ramsey County families are currently on the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), the State's TANF program. About 7,000 families are subject to the work requirements and time clock under welfare reform. This is a reduction from our peak caseload in 1994, when more than 11,400 families were on AFDC in this county.

More than two-thirds of the Ramsey County families on MFIP since the state program
was introduced in January, 1998, have either left welfare or are still on welfare but are
working. This measure - about what happens in the end - is much more important than
the measure of how many people are in what activity at any random point in time.
Only 12% of the families on welfare when the clock started ticking in Ramsey County
have actually reached the time limits. Of those that did, almost 90% have been found to
have low IQ's, chronic and impairing illnesses, serious mental illness combined with
high degrees of homelessness, domestic violence, or ill and disabled children.

> More than one-third of the long-term families on welfare in Ramsey County have
two such barriers to employment; and

> More than one-quarter have three or more such barriers to employment. Current funding levels support job counselors with average caseloads of 100 participants each and financial workers with average caseloads of 150 families each.

Adequate Funding

Keep not only the funding for TANF at least at the 1996 levels, but increase funding for child care assistance. More than 1,300 families in our community are already on waiting lists for child care assistance. We cannot make welfare reform work if working families cannot meet their families' basic needs.

Continued Flexibility

Extend the waiver that allows Minnesota to develop the unique features that have made MFIP the most successful of the state programs in moving families out of poverty as they move off welfare.

The flexibility allowed in work activities pays off in the high number of people who leave MFIP for competitive work. But if we cannot ready people for that competitive work by addressing mental illness, homelessness, domestic violence, or the disabling conditions of many of the children, those families will be stuck in make-work jobs.

Page Two

March 27, 2003

Treat legal immigrants fairly

The original federal bill, the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act of August, 1996, unfairly targeted legal immigrants who need support. Ramsey County is increasingly a home to immigrants who have revitalized what had been disappearing business districts and distressed neighborhoods. Our communities suffer when residents cannot access the support services they need to work, raise children, and fully participate in our community.