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Tuesday, December 16, 2003
High cost of helping poor
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||||
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Also on this page: Hidden Faces of Poverty | |||||
More than 18,000 Aroostook County residents were on Medicaid in November. So were more than 13,000 people in Somerset County, almost 10,000 in Washington County, more than 6,000 in Franklin County and more than 4,000 in Piscataquis County. Those five counties alone had almost 25 percent of the total statewide enrollment in Medicaid for November, though they account for only 16 percent of Maine's population. Rural poverty in western, northern and Down East Maine may be largely invisible to the rest of the state. But whether they know it or not, Mainers everywhere are paying the price for the social services provided to poor people in those regions. No matter where they live, Mainers are helping to support the rural poor because state taxes pay for a range of services, said Rep. Peter Mills, R-Cornville, who represents five towns in Somerset County. "An awful lot of that money, a fair amount, comes up here to take care of neglected people," Mills said. Mainers spend at least $284 per capita annually for services to help the poor. At least $250 of that total is spent on Medicaid. Demand for social services has grown as more people have slipped into poverty. The number of Mainers living in poverty grew from 128,466 in 1989 to 135,501 in 1999, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Washington County was the hardest hit, with nearly one in five residents living in poverty. About one in seven residents lives in poverty in Aroostook, Franklin, Piscataquis and Somerset counties. Those increases come with a price tag for taxpayers. The state and federal governments have expanded insurance for the poor several times over the years to provide coverage for families who need help but did not qualify for it previously. One notable example occurred just a few years ago, when the state and federal governments increased childhood access to insurance by creating what has been dubbed Cub Care. That program extended eligibility beyond Medicaid income limits to include more low-income children living just above poverty. Rural legislators say the need for such investments remains strong because rural poverty is on the rise. Mills said poverty is growing in his region because traditional manufacturing jobs that once offered steady employment to Mainers with relatively little education are being lost. He said the mechanization of jobs that were once labor-intensive, such as logging, has robbed rural Mainers of job opportunities as well. "You just don't see kids buying a chain saw and going off into the woods to make a living" anymore, Mills said of his Somerset County district. "There was so much to do even 15 or 20 years ago for people with limited educations and horizons." Maine's poverty-related enrollment in Medicaid rose from 24,100 to 48,400 from 1997 to 2002, with the biggest jump occurring from 2000 to 2001, when enrollment doubled. Medicaid is paid for through a combination of state and federal dollars. Gov. John Baldacci recently proposed Medicaid cuts to deal with a shortfall in that program's budget, but final action is pending. At the current $321 million level, the state is spending about $250 in state Medicaid and Cub Care money for every man, woman and child living in Maine. And that's on top of more than $1.2 billion in federal Medicaid funds. transition?"The jobs aren't readily available and the ones that are, you just can't support a family on them," said Sen. Pamela Hatch, D-Skowhegan. "I think it's generally worse than it was when I was younger." Farming and other natural-resource industries are not as strong as they once were, said Rep. Roger Sherman, R-Hodgdon, who represents two towns and a plantation in Aroostook County. Instead, Sherman said, regions like his are more dependent on what he calls "transfer payments" - tax dollars that support key local employers, such as hospitals and nursing homes. General assistance fund Families also are depending on social supports in difficult times. Five rural counties - Aroostook, Franklin, Piscataquis, Somerset and Washington - ate up more than 10 percent of the state's general assistance budget last year. That budget is used by poor families who need emergency help to buy food or pay for heating. The program is jointly funded by the state and the municipalities, both of which increased their contributions significantly in the last fiscal year, to almost $7.6 million, up from $6.5 million the year before, according to the Department of Human Services. But it's harder for families to get general assistance funds than in years past. Christine Hastedt of the Maine Equal Justice Project, which advocates for the poor, attributes that to tighter eligibility standards. But even $5 million a year for the state share of general assistance translates into $4 a head for every Mainer, plus the local per-capita cost, which varies by municipality. Other taxpayer costs There also are costs for monthly welfare payments. Every Mainer is spending more than $30 a year for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children in 1996, and a related training program known as Aspire. The cost to the state totaled more than $40 million a year in each of the last four years, according to the Bureau of the Budget. The federal government spends even more on temporary assistance in Maine. Maine taxpayers shoulder other costs to help the poor. Rural people who need help tend to migrate to places where they can find social services, jobs, educational opportunities, medical care and shelter, said Christopher St. John of the Maine Center for Economic Policy. That literally shifts some of the burden of rural poverty from Maine's towns to its cities, as people relocate in search of services and opportunities. Housing assistance is part of the mix. The Maine State Housing Authority, which finances the construction and sale of single-family homes and apartment buildings for poor and moderate-income Mainers, gets most of its money from its own bonds, not from taxpayers. But here too, state taxpayers pitch in, albeit on a smaller scale than in social service programs run by DHS. In 2001, voters approved a $12 million housing bond, which will have to be repaid by taxpayers. Earlier this year, voters endorsed a $60 million bond that included $8 million for low-income housing. That, too, will come out of taxpayers' pockets. The $20 million principal on those housing loans alone will cost each Mainer more than $15, plus interest. Not surprisingly, most of the state's housing investments are in the larger counties, but state spending in rural areas is significant as well. In 2003, for example, the housing authority financed a combined total of 153 single-family homes in Aroostook, Franklin, Piscataquis, Somerset and Washington counties. Also this year, the housing authority financed 195 apartment units in multifamily buildings in eight counties. The biggest investments were in Cumberland, Androscoggin and Penobscot counties, but even in such a city-centered program, 25 of the 195 units were located in rural Aroostook and Oxford counties. A tale of two Maines Lawmakers from both major parties agree that state government has no solution for lifting rural Maine from poverty, even though the state as a whole has every reason to do so because of the shared cost of social services. "I know everybody hates to hear that there are two Maines, but there definitely are," said Hatch, the state senator. Adding insult to injury, she said, Mainers in the wealthier southern part of the state "don't have a grasp of what is going on in rural Maine." Staff researcher Julia McCue contributed to this story. Staff Writer Paul Carrier can be contacted at 622-7511 or at: pcarrier@pressherald.com
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