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Show s Lien Law Invalidation a Pendina Welfare Ch 1,1 I'tah's lion l.iw . a l.iml-Ul l.iml-Ul nurK in public wolfaro 01 administration in tlio " state, will I'eeome in-1,1 in-1,1 operative in li'M niuler " terms of Federal leis-lation leis-lation passed in the eK)s-intf eK)s-intf davs of the eoni;res-! eoni;res-! sional session last fall. e it is noted in a Hosearoh v Heport released this 10 eoK by I'tah Koutula-1); Koutula-1); tion. the private, nou- nrofit public service ag-" ag-" ency. n Nullification of (He lien " law will be effected by ' the provisions of I'ub- ;' lie Law i2-tH)3 (Known " during congressional s debates as U.K. 0, which i. . has been ivon more attention for its Social Security changes than for the changes it will brinij about in public welfare administration. The Federal statute does not specifically repeal re-peal state lien laws, but establishes eligibility for receipt of Old Ako Assistance without repaid re-paid to property liens. I'nder provisions of the act. the Federal Cov-ermnent Cov-ermnent will take over administration of Old Atje Assistance, Aid to the mind, and Aid to the Permanently andTo-tally andTo-tally Disabled on Jan. 1, 11)71. Welfare programs pro-grams dealing with children's chil-dren's needs will be left in the hands of the stat-eral stat-eral financial assistance. assist-ance. Utah's lien law was enacted in 1'.) 17 and later ratified by popular popu-lar vote. It K'ves the state a lien against real property owned by adult recipients of public welfare, wel-fare, to be collected after af-ter the death of the owners own-ers who retain. lull use of their property during tlieir 'lifetime. Fnact-ment Fnact-ment of (ho lien law in Utah is widely credited with helping to reduce the growing public wel- ' fare burden in the late HMD's and li)5()'s and thereby making' money available to meet the spiralitiK costs of public education in the state. While the Federal legislation leg-islation only nullifies operation op-eration of the I'tah lien law and those of other states where they exist and does not repeal them, a proposal for outright out-right repeal is expected to be placed before the llJ73 Legislature, the Foundation noteu. Considerable Con-siderable opposition is expected to develop against ag-ainst the proposal for repeal. re-peal. One of the stated objectives ob-jectives of the lien law was to make genuine need a criterion of dispensing dis-pensing Old Ago Assistance Assis-tance and provide adequate ade-quate aid for those actually ac-tually needing it. The Foundation report notes that the law appears to have achieved a large degree de-gree of success, as I'tah numerical Old Age load is relatively light, but payments to individual recipients are near national na-tional and regional averages. av-erages. Noting that the state will lose some revenue when the lien law becomes be-comes inoperative, and would lose more if the law were outright repealed, re-pealed, Utah Foundation states: "It is not the dollars which are of first importance, im-portance, however, but the possible future effects ef-fects of repeal." "Many observers feel that if the lien law is repealed, it might not be possible to reenact it. And while there would be no need for the law while P.L. J2-(',();) is in effect in its present form there is no certainty that it will not some day be substantially altered or repealed . . . responsibility responsibil-ity for Old Age Assistance Assis-tance may return to the states, and the lien law could again serve a most useful purpose to maintain main-tain a program based on genuine need." When the Federal Government Gov-ernment (thru the Social So-cial Security Administration) Admini-stration) takes over the complete financing of adult welfare programs (except General Assistance Assis-tance which has always been and w ill remain exclusively ex-clusively a responsibility responsibil-ity of the states),. Utah and other states will be relieved of a substantial substan-tial direct financial burden, bur-den, the Foundation report re-port notes. However, in Utah's case there will be some offset. Federal definition of "disabled" is somewhat tighter than Utah's, and the changeover change-over may result in a heav ier load being placed plac-ed on the state's General Gen-eral Assistance budget. A number of other changes are being contemplated con-templated in I'tah's internal in-ternal public welfare administration. ad-ministration. "Money programs," including not only direct cash payments but such items it-ems as vendor payments and food stamps, will be formally separated from programs concerned with the furnishing of social services, under terms of proposed legislation leg-islation . The programs have already been separated sep-arated in actual operation oper-ation and the proposed legislation would apply the stamp of formal approval. ap-proval. While some welfare officials feel the separation separ-ation of the programs will result in increased efficiency and others question this, most appear ap-pear to agree that the separation would be a good thing for other reasons, rea-sons, the Foundation report re-port says. "Under Federal Fed-eral laws and court decisions, de-cisions, income maintenance main-tenance programs have come to be regarded as basic legal rights, while it is desired to provide the services programs only on request." |