Group wants welfare grant raised

from The Albany Times Union

Advocates say $291 monthly payment for family of 3 hasn't grown in 18 years; state cites other aid

By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau

ALBANY -- A group of community organizations, clerics, soup kitchen operators and other anti-poverty activists are calling on Gov. Eliot Spitzer to increase the state's basic welfare grant.

With the governor's stated willingness to raise the pay of trial court judges, who earn $136,000, and possibly that of legislators, who make $79,500 plus stipends, they say increasing the $291 per month for a family of three on public assistance is justified.

"It's been 18 years since it's been raised," said Mark Dunlea, executive director of the Hunger Action Network of New York State, and one of the letter writers.

Dunlea and others plan to conduct a short vigil outside the governor's office on Friday.

Administration officials say they are entering a tough budget period and say they are increasing other forms of public assistance this year to put more money in the hands of the poor.

"We have limited resources this year so we looked at how to target them," said David Hansell, commissioner of the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

Hansell pointed to three major changes: providing more money to the financially strapped New York City Housing Authority for public housing; increasing child support payments that individuals get to keep; and not counting Social Security disability checks against welfare payments.

Additionally, OTDA and other state agencies are launching efforts to make people aware of benefits they may be entitled to but not using, such as food stamps, child tax credits and the state and federal Earned Income Tax Credit, said spokesman Michael Hayes.

Those are worthwhile developments, said Dunlea, but he says they still fail to make up for the bite inflation has taken from the basic payment since it was last increased in 1990.

Additionally, Dunlea said Spitzer told him he doesn't believe there is the political will in the Legislature to increase welfare benefits this year.

"I said if you put it on the table that's the first step toward political will," said Dunlea, who added that the change in Social Security payments stemmed from a lawsuit started during the Pataki administration. The state was sued because it had been counting SSI benefits against welfare grants.

The Spitzer administration, in a settlement, agreed to separate the two benefits.