Paying our overdue obligation to the poor

Virginia's flimsy safety net for destitute families is a product of a flinty, self-sufficient culture born of a frontier founding and fostered by a strong belief in the American dream.

In 2009, job creation remains the most viable strategy for the long-term prosperity of the commonwealth, but economic-development efforts alone have failed to beat down a poverty rate that has stubbornly hovered at 10 percent for two decades. Today, 739,000 Virginians live below the poverty level, defined as less than $20,650 in annual income for a family of four.

That's thousands of our neighbors and friends struggling to afford a roof and enough to eat. Worse, the current recession threatens to plunge thousands more into an abrupt financial crisis. Many are coping with uncertainty, unemployment and despair for the first time.

The timing is appropriate for the creation of a task force charged with recommending new ways to reduce poverty in Virginia. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine this month announced the new group, which includes state officials, bankers, nonprofit leaders and legislators.

Members should consult two recent reports on the topic. The New York Times chronicled the confusing and illogical mix of state programs that mete out relief and rejection based on where a person lives.

The inescapable conclusion is that many Virginians would be better off elsewhere. The Old Dominion ranks 47th among the 50 states in per-capita spending on Medicaid, the health insurance program for indigent families. With only 29 percent of the unemployed receiving benefits, only four states are stingier in granting jobless aid.

The analysis reveals the absurdities that have evolved in Virginia policy. The state is not generous with any aid program but is especially restrictive on unemployment assistance, even though it is designed for those who have had jobs and are searching for new employment. State lawmakers refused to loosen the rules even temporarily when offered $125 million from the federal stimulus package for that purpose.

While Virginia has done a respectable job in enrolling 71 percent of its low-income children in health insurance programs, only 34 percent of poor adults are covered because eligibility rules block most applicants making more than $6,000 a year. Insurance alone won't keep a child healthy if his parents are chronically ill and unable to care for him.

The second report, from the nonprofit Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, outlines specific recommendations for addressing Virginia's meager aid programs. The Richmond research group last week urged state leaders to expand eligibility for jobless aid and health insurance.

It also recommended the state take advantage of other federal incentives tied to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. The Institute notes that fewer than 50,500 children were enrolled in 2007, but 96,000 Virginia youngsters live in deep poverty, defined as annual incomes less than $11,000 for a family of four.

Finally, the group pressed for reforms to the state tax system, which now forces Virginians making less than $18,000 annually to pay nearly nine times as much of their income in sales and excise taxes as the state's wealthiest 1 percent.

If Virginia leaders can't be moved to take even small steps to help care for struggling residents when they need the state's assistance, it undermines the very notion of this place as a commonwealth.

A fair-weather state that happily accepts tax receipts but provides no safety net pricks at the conscience of all but the hardest-hearted Virginians.

Poverty is a frustrating problem even in times of economic stability, but the need for new approaches to an old and obstinate problem has never been more urgent.