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It's been 10 years since Oswego County began making sweeping reforms in its social services system. In 1994, Oswego County was chosen by New York State to spearhead model reforms based on experimental programs in Kenosha, WI. The federal government later adopted the reforms. After a decade of change, let's take a look at the results.

The goal of welfare reform was to decrease dependency on government cash assistance and encourage continued employment. Prior to 1994, the state DSS policies and procedures emphasized getting cash assistance to eligible applicants. It was often six months before a recipient became involved in employment programs. The system encouraged long-term dependency on public assistance.

Today, the emphasis is on helping people seek employment and appreciate the benefits and value of being employed. Every job is seen as a stepping stone to the next better job. Public assistance recipients are often participating in employment programs within a week of their application. There is a five-year cumulative time limit to their benefits.

While the demand for public assistance changes with the economy, the overall results of 10 years of reform can be seen in service levels. Family assistance cases have decreased 70 percent in the past ten years, from 1,804 to 529. Cases of "Safety Net" emergency cash assistance have decreased 60 percent.

As cash assistance cases declined, demand for other services continued to increase. Food stamp cases increased 9 percent, child support cases increased 24 percent, and childcare cases increased 84 percent. Medicaid cases increased 41 percent. At the same time, mandated Medicaid benefits and eligibility were substantially expanded, driving up county costs significantly.

Why are we seeing these trends? As more and more clients entered the workforce, welfare caseloads decreased, but demand for services that help them stay employed increased. For example, when a single mother gets an entry-level job, she may not make enough money to afford child care while she's at work, and she may not have medical benefits for her family. Assistance programs such as Family Health Plus, Child Health Plus, Medicaid, food stamps, and childcare assistance help low-income working families and encourage continued employment.

Nearly 250 county jobs were eliminated over the last three years. "Doing more with less" is an old and over-used catch phrase; however, that phrase is a daily reality for the county workforce. This is particularly true in the Department of Social Services, which lost many positions last year. Although the total number of cases has decreased in 10 years, the caseload borne by remaining employees has risen, and the type of cases they are working on are more demanding and intensive.

Welfare applications under the old system took far less time to process than do today's applications. Screening and monitoring activities are far more involved today, and there is more one-on-one contact and counseling between DSS staff and clients.

I'd like to express my appreciation to the DSS staff and Commissioner of Social Services Frances Lanigan for their achievements in welfare reform and for their continued work, under difficult circumstances, on behalf of Oswego County's most vulnerable populations.

I'd also like to thank the Legislature's Social Services Committee for their support of reform, and particularly Chairwoman Barbara Brown (District 8, Palermo) for her leadership. Barbara is one of the staunchest fighters I've ever seen to fight against mandated services and the costly and unnecessary expansions of eligibility programs. Yet, she wisely balances her fiscal conservatism with a realistic and knowledgeable understanding of the needs of low-income families in our communities.