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Replacing Welfare with Workfare
Four years ago, George Pataki faced a welfare system that was denying New Yorkers the opportunity to pursue their dreams. He said: Give people on welfare hope, and they will turn that hope into opportunity. And that's exactly what hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers have done.
The Pataki Record on Replacing Welfare with Workfare:
 - Governor Pataki says "We knew that to help people on welfare, we had to tear up the roots of dependency and replace them with the seeds of opportunity. We have reformed welfare to allow people to pull themselves out of government dependency to a life of pride and self-reliance." And it's true. Under Governor Pataki, New York is in the forefront of sweeping, fundamental welfare reform.
- The Governor has won important changes that transform welfare from a program that encouraged dependancy, punished initiative and destroyed the spirit into one that fosters growth, rewards personal responsibility and values work.
- New York was once considered the worst of welfare states. When Governor Pataki took office, one in 11 New Yorkers was on welfare. That is changing.
- Governor Pataki replaced welfare with workfare. Welfare recipients now work for the benefits they receive and a new five-year limit on benefits ensures that welfare is never again a lifetime program.
- The Governor has also expanded New York's finger-imaging program for welfare recipients. This innovative anti-fraud measure has saved taxpayers millions of dollars and vastly reduced welfare fraud abuses.
- Because of sweeping and fundamental reforms enacted by the Governor and the Legislature New York State's welfare rolls are down by more than 562,107 - or 34 percent -- from January 1995 through March 1998.
Additional Information
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