Gov. Snyder To Merge State Social Services Agencies

By David Eggert, Associated Press

LANSING (AP) - Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said he will announce plans in his State of the State speech Tuesday night to "dramatically" reorganize two state agencies in an effort to better help people in poverty by focusing less on programs and more on recipients of public assistance themselves.

The Republican governor told The Associated Press ahead of his address that he will soon issue an executive order to order to merge Michigan's social services agencies and possibly realign or eliminate some programs. The Community Health and the Human Services departments would become the Department of Health and Human Services. The two departments are among the state's largest agencies, together employing more than 14,000 workers.

"There's a dramatic increase in how many people are falling outside the mainstream and remaining there. We need to do something about that," Snyder, who is weeks into his second four-year term, said in an interview. "So now is the time. Now's the time to dramatically reorganize government to be much more people-centric, not program-centric."

Snyder said the move is part of a larger plan that will also include new education initiatives to ensure more residents enjoy a "river of opportunity." In arguing for the reorganization, he cited more than 145 government assistance programs that are focused on workforce development, children and health, which he said represent a "failing" model of bureaucracy that has grown over decades.

While the programs are well intentioned, he said, they can facilitate dependency by addressing only symptoms of poverty. Snyder said that realigning some programs would allow caseworkers to more clearly understand the entire circumstances of the person they are trying to help.

Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said it is too early to say if there will be layoffs.

As examples, Snyder said he will propose bolstering programs that he said have worked - including Pathways to Potential, which embeds social workers in some public schools, and Community Ventures, which connects unemployed residents of Detroit, Flint, Saginaw and Pontiac with companies that are hiring.

He also will highlight the work of Cascade Engineering in Grand Rapids, which launched a program in the late 1990s in which a state DHS case manager works on site to help welfare-to-work participants. The initiative has been expanded to roughly 20 other area employers with more than 700 employees who formerly were welfare recipients.

Amy Valderas, 40, walked into a DHS office in 1999 to apply for assistance and was offered a job at Cascade Engineering. She has stayed ever since and has been promoted to floor supporter.

She said the on-site caseworker helped her qualify for a grant to buy a car after her old one began having problems, allowing her to continue getting to work.

On education, Snyder said he will call for the GOP-controlled Legislature to authorize spending for a commission to focus on third-grade reading - considered a critical benchmark - and other prenatal-to-third grade issues to improve children's outcomes.

He also wants to ramp up efforts to improve the transition from high school to higher education, with a focus on career counseling, technical training in the skilled trades, and dual-enrollment and online learning.

Asked about legislation introduced in the last session that would hold back all third-graders who are behind in reading, he said it should be "looked at" when kids are not successful. But his initiative is focused on approaching the problem earlier.

Restructuring or combining human services programs will be a complicated project, in part because many are federal or rely on federal funding. Food stamps, for instance, are paid for by the U.S. government but administered by the state, as is cash assistance for welfare recipients.

Neither legislative leaders from both parties nor a spokesman for the largest union for state employees could immediately be reached early Tuesday morning.

The changes come after Snyder ordered a reorganization in December of the state's unemployment, job training, housing and economic development programs under one department.

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