Los Banos Rotary Club History
Welfare Director Tells Of Program

Kenneth Williamson, director of the Merced County Welfare Department, spoke before the Los Banos Rotary Club at their luncheon meeting Tuesday, giving a resume of the functions and operation of his department, and explaining some of the reasons why welfare and its kindred activities cost the Merced county taxpayer more than half of his total tax bill.

Declaring that the directors and personnel of the department do not make the welfare program but merely operate it under the laws enacted by the people of this country, Williamson explained that all of the services, amount of aid and enabling provisions of the program are handled in accordance with the law, the department endeavoring to conduct it with the least possible cost to the taxpayer.

Old Age assistance in California last year, he said, cost about $18 million a month, or more than similar assistance in the states of New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois. In Merced county the welfare department will spend about $2 ¼ million this fiscal year, most of which is federal and state aid monies, but $350,000 coming directly from county taxes.

Williamson said the child welfare aid is being paid for 1200 children in this county who are orphans or whose parents are incapacitated. In too many instances, he said, this is the result of broken homes, family relationships, and children of women who are not married. He said that in most divorce proceedings, courts are too lenient in insuring responsibility for children and too often fail to follow through on court orders setting up financial responsibility. To a large degree, he declared, this is not the fault of the court, but inadequacy of laws that would provide sufficient penalty for failure to comply. A new law providing penalties of us to two years in jail for failure to provide for minors would have a terrific restrictive effect, he said, and would be directly reflected in sharply reduced case loads for the welfare department.
While most people are apparently concerned as to the cost of child aid, old age and other departments of the welfare aid program, pressure groups and religious exert a continual pressure upon state and federal governments to more and more broaden the scope of the aid program, thus adding continuously to the taxpayers load.

As to the cost of the welfare program in this county, Williamson said that welfare aid in this county costs about 80 cents for every man, women and child in the county. By contrast, in other near valley counties, the program on a like per capita basis, costs from $1.04 to $1.85 per person. The favorable comparison of this county, he declared, is largely the result of the thorough investigation procedures followed in this county.

September 17, 1954

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