Remarks By Governor
David M. Beasley

Family Independence Act Kick-off

January 19, 1996

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Thank you, Jim. I'd first like to offer a few words of praise for this man who has brought such expertise to the job of reform. Jim Clark has been a guiding force for change, and we've been incredibly fortunate to have his insight on this issue.

It's exciting to welcome you all here, because starting today, January 19th, 1996, we're ushering in a new era of hope and opportunity across our state. Today we're officially declaring independence for South Carolina families!

As state agency directors and leaders from Social Service offices statewide, you are the soldiers on the front lines of this battle for independence.

I want to commend you for your willingness to take the reins in rebuilding the lives of South Carolina's poor. You understand better than anyone that welfare reform isn't a simple formula with easy answers. Piecing together this puzzle won't come without a tremendous amount of work, much of which you'll be shouldering.

But maintaining the wasteland of our current welfare state bears a greater human price tag than we can afford to pay.

The path that's led us to this point was paved with good intentions 30 years ago, when Lyndon Johnson set the entitlement trend into motion. But instead of "eliminating poverty from the land," we've fed it and watched it grow.

We watched a mentality of dependency eat away at the work ethic, sense of pride and family cohesion of America's poor. And we watched our poverty rates soar higher than ever.

So today, 300 failed social programs and five-point-four trillion dollars too late, our eyes are finally open. Plain and simple, welfare didn't work.

I'm not sure we can really get our minds around the extent to which this system has snowballed and how many hard-earned tax dollars we've poured into this black hole.

I read recently that five-point-four trillion dollars is enough money to purchase every factory, office building and piece of manufacturing equipment in the nation...every airline, trucking company, and our commercial maritime fleet...every TV, radio and power company...and every retail and wholesale store in the nation!

Think of the good that could and should have been done with that kind of money! We can't afford to continue that course, especially when we could be at work on solutions that actually help.

Needless to say, I was very disappointed to learn that the President had decided to veto the federal welfare reform bill. I'd like to challenge the President today to reconsider that decision, because the states are waiting in the wings for the chance to put their ideas to work.

In South Carolina, we've set our own course with the Family Independence Act, which gives us our first opportunity to make policies that make sense and make a difference for South Carolinians.

I continue to have confidence in the ability of South Carolina's poorest families to rebuild, in the ability of unskilled workers to learn and grow, and in our ability to break the cycle of poverty.

The Family Independence Act will be the bridge between the haves and have nots in our state, arming the needy with the tools to cross safely to the other side. That bridge will not be built on the shifting sands of government promises, but on solid skills, education and opportunity.

Our philosophy for reform boils down to this...when we focus on what people can't do, we perpetuate a cycle that cheapens, stigmatizes and devalues our citizens.

But when we focus on what people can do, coupled with training and opportunity, people will make the right choices for their families and they will succeed.

Just look at the example of one woman in our personnel office. A single mother, she had supported her two children for six years on A-F-D-C, food stamps, Medicaid..."the works," she calls it.

When she came to us as a trainee through a Richland County D-S-S work program, she'd never held a job before. She was so shy, sometimes you could barely hear her voice on the phone.

That was back in March of '94. But last month, she was hired full-time by my office as an administrative specialist. She's a model employee...trusted to run the place by herself with confidence. Some say the best job training is a job, and Vivian Ward is living proof. We're certainly appreciative of her good work! She's here with us today, so Vivian, will you please stand? We'd like to recognize you.

Even with a good full-time job, she says it's as tough or even tougher to make ends meet without assistance. But now that Vivian's had a taste of independence, she's vowed never to go back.

That's the vision: to replace policies that entrap with values that give people room to grow.

Charleston was the first to begin implementing our welfare reform policies, starting back in September. Those of you working in Charleston's D-S-S have gotten a crash course in this new employment philosophy, and I know it's been a stressful transition. But we're already seeing dividends in people's lives...people who are searching for avenues into work and greater self-sufficiency.

People want to work, even though they don't always have the skills or the access to education it takes to get and keep a job. Linking A-F-D-C recipients to job training outlets can make living-wage jobs not just a possibility, but a reality for many.

The new staff we brought on to handle the added workload has soared above and beyond the challenge set before them. We've asked them to place five people into jobs each month. By the second month, they'd already nearly doubled that average.

Many of you have spent your entire careers in D-S-S and are just now getting the chance to do the job you wanted to do. Today you're career counselors, not automatic teller machines.

And for the first time, many of the poor in our state will have new opportunities to do what they really want to do...to make it on their own.

While you prepare people for jobs, the business community is working at the other end to prepare jobs for those people.

We've seen a dramatic demonstration of what a thriving private sector can do, giving us the greatest drop in poverty of any state in the nation. From August 1994 to August 1995, we saw nearly an eight percent drop in Food Stamps and AFDC statewide. And in less than a year, we've created more than 24-thousand new jobs, many of those in areas of need. We're working now to prepare South Carolina's job market for the coming workforce.

I want to encourage members of the business community through tax credits to get into the business of hiring from welfare rolls. For those located in Enterprise Zones, there are additional tax breaks in the bargain.

We need more sponsors like Westinghouse who see the big picture of what independence will mean to our communities and who are willing to bring their name, muscle, and brain power to the cause.

In Aiken County, Westinghouse is lending D-S-S their computers and statisticians for research tools. They're targeting potentially hundreds of positions for welfare recipients. And they're combining resources with the Commission on Aging to create community-wide van pools, so there's one system that can serve both the local elderly and carry welfare mothers to work and day care.

Corporate efforts like these set the precedent, creating momentum for other companies to follow. And they must follow, because one company simply can't do it all. And this is not just Social Services' sole obligation.

It will take all of us to help our citizens win back their independence...every agency in this Family Agency Workgroup, every job creator and every next door neighbor.

I'm going to wrap things up in a moment and give the floor to a real expert...Dr. Mead...but first I'd like to leave you with a letter that came in to one of our D-S-S counselors in Abbeville this summer. I think this woman's story says it all.

She writes, "I just wanted to say hello and to thank you for encouraging me to go to work. I had been on welfare so long I didn't think I could make it on my own, but with people like you behind me, you gave me the right tools I needed to get started.

With all the goals you talk to the class about, I have reached two of them. Number one, to get a job. I have a new home I bought in December, and I am really proud of my self, and I want you to be proud for me. I will have to work hard to keep these goals.

I have been on the job a year and I haven't missed one day. And I don't intend to miss a day as long as God gives me my health and strength. So I just want to say thank you and may God bless you and keep you."

For maybe the first time ever, this woman has control of her own life. She can take pride in her accomplishments. She can hold her head up high.

She has much to be proud of, and I think that her story and others like hers should give us all cause to celebrate on this Family Independence Day.

Thank you for your role in giving South Carolina families back their freedom.

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