ATLANTA — Desperate though they are to fill gaps in their budgets, more than half the states in the country haven’t touched a $5 billion pot of federal stimulus funds meant to find work for welfare recipients.
Leaders in most states have hesitated to pony up the matching funds the program requires to create jobs that might not last after the federal subsidy’s Sept. 30 sunset date.
The Department of Health and Human Services has handed out $1.2 billion of the emergency cash to 22 states, including $124 million to help them ease caseloads by paying employers to hire low-skilled, low-income workers. The rest has gone to help states pay for general welfare programs.
States such as California, Tennessee and Georgia — where officials have seen unemployment rates spike among recipients of Temporary Assistance of Needy Families — are eagerly tapping the fund to subsidize the creation of thousands of jobs they say keep these workers from sinking further into poverty.
The short-term appeal is plain, at least for those on welfare rolls: In Georgia, for instance, an unemployed mother of two earning $270 a month in TANF support could earn three times as much in a subsidized, minimum-wage job.
Still, critics contend states could suffer in the long run, as employers are encouraged to focus on creating cheap, disposable positions rather than long-term job growth.
States should “offer incentives to businesses to hire more qualified people,” said Don Sabbarese, of Kennesaw State University in Georgia.
