By Rachel Kolokoff
Eagle Tribune
April 2, 2008

BOSTON — Welfare advocates released a report yesterday faulting the 
state for not reinvesting more than $1 billion in cost savings from 
welfare reform into programs to help low-income residents and their 
children.

The report, prepared by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a 
liberal think tank, for the Home for Little Wanderers, said mid-1990s 
welfare reform laws that cut cash assistance in favor of work support 
programs reduced payments to lower-income families by $1.3 billion in 
Massachusetts between 1995 and 2007.

Recommitting funding by expanding educational programs, job training, 
community support programs and the Earned Income Tax Credit, a 
refundable credit for workers with low incomes, would help families and 
satisfy demands for better educated workers with wider skill sets, 
advocates said.

Joan Wallace-Benjamin, president and CEO of the Home for Little 
Wanderers, said the savings could have been used to expand services to 
the poor. Instead, she said, the money went to state programs such as 
public education, public safety and infrastructure programs that were 
affected by tax cuts.

"Had the commonwealth maintained spending at the same share of its 
resources in 2007 as it had in 1995, we would currently be spending an 
additional 1.3 billion to help lower-income workers provide for their 
families," Wallace-Benjamin said.

Mary Sarris, executive director of the North Shore Workforce Investment 
Board, said that using money to better train workers with low incomes 
would help provide the North Shore with a skilled work force.

"The North Shore economy offers wonderful employment opportunities to 
those with the appropriate skills and education," Sarris said. "In 
fact, many jobs remain vacant because companies search long and hard 
for individuals who have these skills."

She said state officials should be investing more in lower-income 
family support programs, not less.

"We should be investing in our local labor forces to provide education 
and training that moves North Shore residents into these jobs, better 
enabling working parents to provide for their families, filling 
critical job vacancies, and improving our regional and state economy at 
the same time," Sarris said.

Richard Jache, director of Child Care Services for the YMCA of North 
Shore, supported reinvesting money in education and child-care 
programs. Those programs would help children who need educational 
support and working parents who rely on child care.

"Through this critical investment, we better prepare our children to 
excel in school and beyond, and we provide greater support for working 
parents to achieve self-sufficiency," Jache said.

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