THE HAVE-NOTS Get ready for the squeeze of 2004 BY BRIAN C. JONES

Few Rhode Islanders have had as much impact on the state’s social policies as Nancy H. Gewirtz. She is an architect of the Family Independence Program (FIP), the state’s version of welfare reform. Gewirtz helped form a broad coalition that backed key anti-poverty legislation at the State House. A professor of social work at Rhode Island College, she founded and heads RIC’s Poverty Institute, which investigates issues facing low-income families. As part of our look back at 2003, we asked her (in this edited version of a 45-minute interview) to assess the outlook for the state’s poorest residents.

Q: What’s the most serious problem facing poor people in Rhode Island?

A: They don’t have enough money.

Q: In what sense?

A: There are a number of things that have happened over the past year that have put a burden on our lowest-income families — those that can work and those that can’t work. One way to look at this is if you look at the One Rhode Island package of legislation last year and look at what passed and what didn’t. There are some things that are good news for low-income people, but mostly they’ve gotten poorer.

Q: What is the One Rhode Island Coalition?

A: The One Rhode Island Coalition is a coalition [of more than] 135 organizations, about 150 individuals, who signed onto a platform of bills that were designed to improve the income, really, of low- and moderate-income people.

Q: What were some of the coalition’s winners and losers?

A: There are about 30,000 Rhode Islanders who are eligible, but not participating in the food stamp program, and part of that reason is that the value of your car. . . . What happened last year for the first time is that two adults are each allowed to have a car that is not used as an asset against receiving FIP and food stamps. [Gewirtz said other successes include keeping $5 million in the state budget for affordable housing; preserving raises for child care workers, and enacting small "refundable" tax credits to low-income workers. The coalition lost bids to increase cash benefits to welfare workers, more flexible education and training schedules for welfare recipients, and lower premium co-payments for some families in the RIte Care health-care program.]

Q: As you look forward to next year, what’s on your radar?

A: We’ll be back to these same issues. And there are some areas where we actually will ask for increases. . . . We are going to ask for sort of a short-term emergency rental subsidy program, to prevent people from becoming homeless.

Q: Things are going be a lot tighter financially next year. How are poor people going to contend with that?

A: Everything I say to you now, from here on in, is me as the director of the Poverty Institute, as opposed to the facilitator of the One Rhode Island Coalition, because they have not made a decision to look at revenues.

Q: Do you mean you are interested in a tax increase?

A: A number of things have been done . . . to our tax structure that I think need revisiting. One of them is that we cut the personal tax rate from 27.5 to 25 percent over the last few years. It cost the state about $89 million in 2003, and many states are now looking at temporary increases in their rates. We continue to compensate localities for the phase-out of the motor vehicle excise tax. It is now frozen at $4500 value of a car, but it cost the state $100 million a year. So right there, you’ve got $189 million, which would go a long way to closing the deficit. . . . I would favor something on the higher-income people.

Q: I think many people would say that the benefit you get from cutting business taxes is that it helps attract more business, and therefore, more overall revenue.

A: If that’s true, then let me see it. If we have tax breaks that actually create jobs, good jobs, decent wages [and] benefits, I’ll be the first one there fighting for them. But there is no evidence that they work. I’m not suggesting that we do away with them. I’m suggesting that we study them, just like we study every other program in the state’s budget.

Q: Rhode Island has about one million people. How many people don’t have enough money to cut it in this economy?

A: I think it’s close to half the population.

Q: If that’s so, why isn’t there more of a political grassroots push to enact some of the reforms you are pushing?

A: If you look at who owns the media, and you look at how people get information — if they really are not a student of this and they really don’t pay attention — which is very difficult, because people are working many, many hours. We don’t have radio stations where people can turn on and, you know, hear in-depth analysis of these things. We get sound bites. . . . I really believe that the majority of the American people do not understand what’s happened.

Q: Well, what do you see as the appropriate role for government and the private sector?

A: I’m for economic development. I believe the best way out of poverty is a good job. But what we are doing with government — both at the federal and the state level — is that we are starving it of resources.

Q: Last year, you said in a testimonial in your honor, "There are no losing battles."

A: Oh, there are no losing battles. I’m not giving up, and I don’t think anybody should. I think we have to be clever. I think we have to be more proactive, I think we’ve got a big responsibility to educate people about all these issues. And that’s where groups like ours, and the One Rhode Island Coalition, really are stepping up to the plate. . . . I know a lot of wonderful people, who, you know, are committed to the right thing. And we do have justice on our side.