Rendell announces initiatives to help struggling families

HARRISBURG - Arguing that Pennsylvania families "need help now" to weather the recession, Gov. Rendell yesterday said he would redirect millions of dollars for health insurance, mortgage assistance, home-heating assistance, and job-counseling programs.

Calling it "emergency economic relief," the governor said he would immediately offer coverage to an additional 16,000 people now on a waiting list for the state-subsidized health-insurance program for lower-income adults. More than 200,000 residents are on the adultBasic waiting list now - 25,000 of them added just last month.

Rendell said he also would move $5 million into an existing fund that helps recently unemployed residents pay their mortgage while looking for jobs. The money will help an additional 550 families, the governor said.

The governor said he was taking the actions by executive order after job losses continued to mount, adding that the rate in some counties had reached double digits. Pennsylvania's unemployment rate is 7 percent.

"Many of our families are having difficulty just hanging on," Rendell told reporters at a Capitol news conference.

"If you've lost your job, or if you're facing the loss of your home, or you're worried about sending your child to college, these are extraordinarily, excruciatingly difficult times for you," he added. "If we are here for any purpose at all, it is that we've got to do the things we can to provide relief."

The governor also said yesterday that he will extend the state's home-heating assistance for low-income residents by an additional week (to April 3) to provide an additional $6.6 million in grants.

He will also expand job-counseling workshops between now and the end of next month in every county and has created a Web site allowing residents to find the cheapest price for prescription drugs in stores in their area. That Web site is www.parxpricefinder.com.

Rendell said that the price tag for his emergency relief initiatives would be "minimal" and be paid for by existing revenues redirected from other programs. He said the initiatives would not add to the $2.3 billion shortfall in the state's current budget.

For instance, the administration is diverting $5 million to the state Homeowners' Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program. HEMAP is a loan program designed to help residents who are unable to make their mortgage payments and are in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure. The HEMAP loans, which must be repaid, can help people get current on their payments or make part of their mortgage payments for a set time.

Administration officials also said yesterday that no new funding would be immediately required to transfer 16,000 people from the state's adultBasic waiting list into the health-coverage program.

Not all of the program's current funding is being used because of attrition in enrollment. During the next 15 months, however, the administration projects it will cost roughly $19 million to keep those people in the program.

Those 16,000 residents will receive notices this week that they will be able to join.

"The money spent is minimal," Rendell said yesterday, "but it will help families in the short term."

Longer term, Rendell has proposed in his 2009-10 budget to more than double the number of lower-income residents in the adultBasic program, to about 90,000. He also wants to add subsidized prescription-drug coverage to adultBasic, which does not now include it.

The expansion of the adultBasic proposal is expected to be a source of controversy in this year's budget negotiations.

Rendell has tried to expand the state's subsidized health-care coverage plans in the past, but his proposals have been rejected by the Republican-controlled Senate, which is championing a competing health-care plan.

The governor yesterday said that given the tough economic times, he wanted the legislature to begin giving his budget proposals serious consideration now, rather than wait until the last minute to do so.

Since Rendell took office in 2003, no budget has been enacted by the July 1 start of the new fiscal year.

"This is probably the hardest budget we are ever going to deal with," Rendell said, "and it requires an accelerated timetable. We can't leave all issues on the table until the last 10 days of the fiscal year. It requires a level of bipartisanship that we've never seen before."

He added that he would set aside three hours every two weeks to speak with lawmakers about their questions and concerns.

Come May, Rendell said, he will be available every week, and come June, he will be available "every single day."

"These are tough and difficult times for Pennsylvanians," Rendell said. "They're looking to us in Pennsylvania government to respond. Nobody should try to grab political advantage out of this crisis."

Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware), said, "If getting the budget finished on time is an honest priority for the governor, it will happen."