Posted on: Friday, April 1, 2005

EDITORIAL
State welfare reserve must be spent wisely

Hawai'i's families struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table will wonder how the state can justify a reserve of $118 million in unspent welfare money.

Some reserves are necessary. The welfare reserve has recently ballooned due to a decrease in welfare recipients resulting from a 1996 law that established a five-year limit on welfare assistance. At the same time, the amount of federal welfare money given to Hawai'i has stayed about the same. That left millions of dollars in reserve.

Advocates for the poor want the state to be more aggressive in spending that money and cite childcare and job training as key needs.

Gov. Linda Lingle, in her proposed two-year budget, wants to spend $120 million to increase cash payments and bonuses to needy parents who are returning to work. She also wants to spend $20 million to help parents with preschool and childcare. Both are great ideas.

But there have been some questions on the administration's use of $513,000 from the welfare fund for an anti-drug media campaign and $625,000 to replace state money that was cut from the arts. The administration said the spending was a creative attempt to reach at-risk and low-income young people.

Teaching our youth that drugs are not the way to go is a laudable goal. And we are all for supporting the arts.

But welfare funds should go directly to the needy. House Vice Speaker K. Mark Takai is right in noting that spending welfare funds on these programs is difficult to justify.

While it's true that welfare reform was needed and that the 1996 law was meant to do away with dependency, there are still many in need of that assistance. We owe it to those who rely on those funds to spend welfare dollars wisely.