Jack Frech is drafting a proposal to shake a few apples from the $800 million tree of federal funding for needy families planted in the Ohio General Assembly.
Frech, director of Athens County Jobs and Family Services, told Athens County commissioners yesterday that families in the county are not receiving enough of the $800 million left over in federal funds for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
Families have been receiving virtually the same amount of assistance through the program for 10 years, and the amount has not been fairly adjusted for rising costs in today's economy, Frech said.
The program, which helps about 900 families in Athens County, was created to make sure that needy families could take care of themselves and their children. Each state decides on eligibility requirements, Frech said, and Ohio requires at least 30 hours of work or training a week to be eligible for cash assistance.
Frech is proposing that families be given an extra $100 a month -an amount of which he said the state could easily shake loose.
It would help some (families) get basic things
said county commissioner Lenny Eliason about the would-be increase.
The average family receives $370 a month in cash assistance and $300 in food stamps, and that would put an average family at half the poverty level, Frech said.
Many families receiving funding from the program cannot afford to pay their bills or to put food on the table, he said.
More than 20 percent of people in Athens County lived in poverty in 2002, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
With the nation's talk of social security funds being empty in 20 years or so, many people have forgotten about the families that are in trouble right now, Frech said.
If we have the opportunity to help these people we should do it.
Frech also is asking politicians who used family values as part of their platform to get elected to follow through with their promises.
We should be putting our money where our mouth is he said.
But there may be a larger agenda at work, according to State Rep. Jimmy Stewart, R-Athens. He said there are rumors that Gov. Bob Taft is thinking of rolling out a new plan that deals with assistance to low-income families within the next two to three weeks.
Although the details of Taft's plan have not yet been released, Stewart said Taft's proposal could surpass Frech's in terms of funding. Frech said he heard the same rumors but doubts if Taft's plan will call for as much of an increase as his.
My understanding is that (Taft's) is going to be considerably less.
Stewart said he most likely would support a bill to help needy families as soon as the details were ironed out.
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