AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Senate gave preliminary approval Thursday to a Republican-led bill limiting General Assistance to some welfare recipients whom critics say could be out working.
LD 1035, one of several welfare reform bills making its way through the Legislature, would reduce the time period that some Mainers could collect benefits to no more than nine months.
Democrats in the Senate say the measure was misdirected and excessive, but were unable to convince four members of their own party to oppose the bill, let alone majority Republicans.
From Sen. Eric Brakey's perspective, the problem with Maine's $25 million General Assistance program is that it's offering benefits that have gone far beyond their originally intended purpose.
"The General Assistance program is intended as a safety net for short-term acute emergencies," Brakey says. "Increasingly, however, Maine taxpayers find themselves paying into General Assistance to serve longer-term purposes — including subsidized housing."
Brakey, an Auburn Republican, is sponsoring one of several welfare reform bills, all designed to reduce state funding for programs that benefit lower-income Mainers.
He says LD 1035 targets adults who do not have any dependents but who are capable of working. And those people, he says, should not be entitled to the current five-year cap on welfare benefits. Under the bill, their assistance will be limited to nine months.
"Establishing time limits for adults without dependents and capable of working broadcasts that we have a robust safety net capable of catching people when they fall and also establishes that the generosity of taxpayers for those who can work does not stretch on indefinitely," Brakey says. "Putting a reasonable time limit on the benefits will not only help lessen the burden, but helps move us one step further from an entitlement culture while protecting benefits for those who truly need them."
"The majority of the people do use General Assistance in the way that it was intended, as a short-term bridge to employment or to better circumstances," says Sen. Ann Haskell, a Portland Democrat and a member of the legislative policy committee that gave Brakey's bill a 7-6 ought-not-to-pass vote.
Haskell says a University of New England study indicates that 97 percent of the GA recipients surveyed who had received benefits longer than six months did not own a vehicle, severely limiting their access to employment. And she says 92 percent of those interviewed possessed physical or mental handicaps that impeded their ability to find jobs.
Sen. Geoff Gratwick, a Bangor Democrat, says Brakey's bill failed to draw those distinctions.
"The problem with this bill is that being able to work and being capable of work are not defined and I think that if this bill goes through it's a bill that would perhaps make people feel better, but it's really not getting at the problem," Gratwick says. "We really need to define what it is if you're 'capable of working' before we go forth in this way."
Assistant Senate Majority Leader Andre Cushing disagrees. The Hampden Republican argues that General Assistance costs are shared by the state and Maine municipalities, but in the end, taxpayers are being asked to do more than they can afford. He says Brakey's bill is a good place to inject some reform into the system.
"As I understand it, General Assistance is for those times when people need a hand up, not a lifestyle, and I think that we're talking about a reasonable opportunity here," Cushing says.
But Democratic Sen. Justin Alfond of Portland views Brakey's bill as an attempt to make a political point at the expense of the state's neediest residents.
"It's just unfortunate that this one program that provides this lifeline to so many has become so polarized in our state and has become what some would call a political hammer that one side uses against the other because they see a political advantage," Alfond says.
Still, Alfond's remarks failed to sway four Democratic senators from joining Republicans to pass the bill 24-11, leading some advocates for the poor to wonder whether those party defections will be reflected when the bill is taken up in the House.