Capital News Service
— COLLEGE PARK — The number of Maryland families who need government help to make ends meet has reached record levels.
More than 700,000 people receive food assistance, the most in state history. A record 70,000 people depend on emergency cash assistance. And the demand for the state’s child care subsidy program has caused officials to impose an indefinite freeze on new applicants.
Yet state and federal officials are budgeting less money for the safety net in the coming fiscal year. The move reflects the government’s confidence in the economic recovery.
Others question whether it is overly optimistic to cut back at a time when the state’s assistance programs are still swollen with unprecedented numbers.
“It took from January 2008 to February 2012 to double the number of people enrolled in the Food Supplement Program,” said Neil Bergsman, director of the Maryland Budget & Tax Policy Institute, a nonpartisan budget analysis organization. “It’s not going to go down all that way in one year.”
Bergsman questioned whether the department is projecting positive estimates to balance the state budget — a constitutional requirement. The state faces a $1.1 billion deficit that legislators hope to eliminate over the next two years.
“We think that our budget is accurate,” said Pat Hines, the director of communication for the Maryland Department of Human Resources. “And we’re optimistic about the direction of the economy and of our numbers.”
However, a report by the Department of Legislative Services Office of Policy Analysis suggested that services to families could be affected, since funding meant for struggling families would have to be spent on paying down the shortfall. If not, “the negative balance will just move from year to year,” the report said.
Demand has been so high that the Department of Human Resources was forced to request an additional $30 million in state funding in fiscal 2012.
The shortfall occurred even though federal funding has doubled to nearly $2 billion each year since before the recession.
The figures do not include the thousands of households who depend on food banks and charities because their income is too high for public assistance. To qualify, a family usually has to make no more than twice the Federal Poverty Level, or $40,000 for a family of three.
Nor do the figures include the families who simply aren’t aware they qualify for assistance. Cash assistance is one of the largest programs threatened by increases in demand.
While programs such as food assistance receive necessary funding no matter what, the state has to cover the remaining costs in the cash assistance program when demand exceeds the funding.
Families that qualify are limited to a total of five years — 60 payments — and also are required to participate in work programs. Today, about 70,000 Marylanders are enrolled in the program — a 40 percent increase from 2008 and an all-time high for the state.
”We really did see a pretty significant pop in enrollment,” said Vince Kilduff, deputy executive director in the Department of Human Resources Office of Programs.
Yet those enrolled in the program represent just a third of those who applied for help. Most of those denied either didn’t qualify or didn’t follow through after applying, Hines said.
One statistic working in the department’s favor is that nearly twice as many people are leaving the program as are signing up for it.
At the current rate, officials are predicting the federal grant alone will cover next year’s demand and this year’s deficit.
Bergsman, who worked in the Department of Budget and Management between 1988 and 2004, said the numbers may still be too optimistic.
“When I was in the budget office, there was a great temptation to use favorable assumptions for spending estimates so that we would not have to cut other stuff as much, and I don’t imagine that it’s any different today,” Bergsman said. “So you can have an estimate that is in the reasonable range, but you can pick the lower end of that range.”
More here.
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