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Families off welfare receive aid

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LOS ANGELES, Calif.–The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has paved the way for families getting off welfare to continue to receive subsidized child care, even as the state has moved to eliminate that support.

“People in this program have worked very hard to get off welfare and back into a job,” Supervisor Don Knabe said. “We have been able to devise a program that can provide support immediately to these at-risk families and without additional administrative costs.”

The end to the child care subsidy was part of nearly $1 billion in line-item veto cuts made by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to the state budget.

About 11,700 Los Angeles families who have moved off welfare and into the workforce would be affected, said Knabe.

First 5 LA, which uses tobacco tax revenue to benefit child in that age group, agreed to provide up to $15 million in transitional funding to continue the child care program.

The cuts were meant to take effect last Monday, but an Alameda Superior Court judge issued an order halting the change pending a hearing Thursday. A lawsuit was filed by parents who argued that the move would jeopardize the jobs of parents of 56,000 children statewide, the Sacramento Bee reported.

The vote was 5-0 in favor of Knabe’s proposal.

“The bottom line is that, in this troubled economy, we must keep people working,” the supervisor said.

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