In today's Daily Freeman: Ulster County will be passing on $1.3 million in state welfare funding to its towns, who had to shoulder extra Safety Net costs this year:
Legislators voted unanimously to use additional state funding the county will receive for another welfare program, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, to help the towns.
Under the 2011-12 state budget, the cost-sharing ratio for Safety Net, a public assistance program for people in financial need, has been changed from the state and counties each picking up 50 percent to the state paying 29 percent and the counties paying 71 percent. Because Ulster County requires its municipalities — 20 towns and the city of Kingston — to pick up the local share, the shift meant the 21 local communities, combined, would be on the hook for what is expected to be an additional $1.3 million this year in local costs for the Safety Net program.
Ulster County is the only county in New York State where towns shoulder part of the costs of welfare programs for their residents. In recent years, the cost-sharing arrangement has pitted wealthier towns against their less gentrified neighbors, and prompted a lawsuit last fall from the City of Kingston, where most of the county's welfare recipients (and public assistance programs) reside.
The story also notes that a proposed resolution that would transfer the costs of the Safety Net program entirely to the county is still in committee, and that county legislators are seeking to create a task force to study the issue.
