Law Commons^™

Why Does It Matter Where I Live? Welfare Reform, Equal Protection, And The Maryland Constitution, Karen Czapanskiy

Karen Czapanskiy

A key feature of welfare reform in 1996 was the replacement of a national entitlement to a minimum economic provision for each poor family by a system under which states enjoy considerable flexibility in deciding whether and under what terms to provide for families in poverty. Some states devolved that authority further down the chain to local or private organizations. In Maryland, the state neither devolved authority to local jurisdictions nor retained it at the state level. Instead, the state placed a large measure of authority for program design and implementation in the hands of state officials whose offices are …