Would the “Preclusion” Policy Shield Counties From Increased GA Costs?
While the budget proposes to preclude counties from providing GA to legal noncitizens removed from federal welfare programs, this preclusion is not proposed for the other groups removed from aid due to welfare reform. Specifically, the preclusion policy would not apply to the 12,000 drug and alcohol dependent people and disabled children who would begin to lose assistance on January 1, 1997–or to the potentially hundreds of thousands of families who could lose benefits due to AFDC-related time limits. Thus, in the short run, the proposed preclusion policy would shield counties from most GA cost increases initially attributable to welfare reform. Over the longer term, however, county GA costs are likely to increase significantly due to time-limited aid, unless the people removed from aid become–and remain–employed. Does Preclusion Make Sense From a Policy Perspective? The proposed preclusion would yield some odd results from a policy perspective. For example, the preclusion policy wo
