Beacon Hill leaders: Move more from welfare to work
Massachusetts has one of the worst workfare participation rates in the United States and Senate leaders signaled Tuesday they will explore ways to move more people from welfare to work by matching them up with open jobs.
Senate President Stanley Rosenberg on Tuesday announced the effort to address the state's welfare-to-work and job training programs, led by Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, and dubbed it the "WorkFirst Initiative."
Rosenberg, an Amherst Democrat, told reporters that while Massachusetts once led the nation in transitioning individuals from "welfare to work," or "workfare," the Bay State is among the "worst performers now in the country."
A Pioneer Institute study released in January identified 7.3 percent of Massachusetts welfare recipients as working in fiscal year 2011, well below the national average of 29.5 percent.
Rosenberg said he has heard from the business community about "significant" concerns regarding unmet labor market demands.
"The employers are telling us, ‘You know, whether they're coming from the welfare rolls, the unemployed, the underemployed, we really just need people to be retrained and to get them into these jobs 'cause it's choking off our growth,’ " Rosenberg said.
He also heard from social service advocates that programs once in place are "gone" while people are "languishing" in welfare while trying to figure out how to re-enter the workforce, he said.
Rosenberg said Senate lawmakers will look at strategies and programs other states have deployed that the federal government encourages and Massachusetts isn't using.
According to Rosenberg's office, the initiative will attempt to address the "shrinking" number of welfare recipients enrolled in workfare programs, determining which sectors are facing the "starkest" shortages of trained workers and what mandates or incentives should be set up, and how to use community colleges and vocational technical high schools.
Rosenberg said a percentage of expanding gambling revenues will be available for workforce development as a slots parlor comes online, followed by planned resort casinos.
"We could beef up some of the work they're doing now, we could pilot some new stuff in the next year or two as these licensees are coming online," he said.
"Pay for performance" efforts have been successful in other states and could be more broadly deployed in Massachusetts, Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg also pointed to the federal block grant for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), set up in 1996 through federal reforms, saying other states are using the money for worker training more than Massachusetts.
Pacheco will be the "team leader" for the initiative and help identify the strategies, Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg did not offer a timeline for when lawmakers would offer a package of reforms as a result of the initiative. "We need to do it right," Rosenberg said.
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