Dollars make a difference: when most states are mired in tight budgets and waiting for federal action, Arkansas has excess money to strengthen its welfare program. Other states may have to target more limited funds.

• Author: Tweedie, Jack

For most states, it would have been a meeting from the past--Arkansas legislators and agency officials sitting in a Senate conference room talking about how they should spend the $80 million in federal welfare funds that had built up in the past few years.

Agency officials had left the money unspent, more than a full year of welfare spending, but had not told legislators about it.

The money is there, agency officials say, because they were concerned about the tougher work requirements being proposed in the federal welfare debate. Arkansas would need to double the number of recipients in jobs or other work activities. Officials did not have a plan for it, but they limited welfare spending to save up money for whatever future plan they could develop. As federal debate over the welfare changes continued for three years, Arkansas' unspent welfare funds grew.

When Representative Jay Bradford and Senator Tracy Steele found out the money had piled up, they took the initiative and called the meeting with key executive officials to talk about options for spending the $80 million.

"We have got to pull together the resources of our welfare program and our workforce agencies," Steele said. "We have to give these families the help they need to do better."

The lawmakers talked first about expanded cash assistance for working families, helping those families move into jobs, and solving the agency's difficulties meeting the expected new work requirements. They also proposed eliminating the waiting list for low-income child care and expanding services to help low-income families get better jobs. They discussed giving more responsibilities to workforce agencies and providing funds for community and faith-based initiatives on parenting and relationship skills.

"We have a lot of work to do," says Representative Bradford, "but this time, we have the money to make a real difference."

OTHER STATES NOT SO LUCKY

No other state has Arkansas' fortune--a large and growing reserve fund. Most other states increased welfare spending substantially in earlier years to spend down remaining block grant funds.

Today, initiatives like Arkansas' just aren't on the table. That is a huge change from the "golden era" of the TANF program, but that doesn't mean other states haven't improved their progranrs.

For several years after federal welfare reform created the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant in 1997, most states experienced sharp drops in welfare...