The 1994 General Assembly passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 74 creating the Commission on Poverty, a panel of citizens and legislators responsible for recommending changes in state programs to improve responsiveness to the poor and to increase the rate of success in eliminating sources of poverty. From November 1994 through September 1995, the Commission held monthly meetings during which it gathered testimony from officials representing various state agencies. In addition, three public forums for citizens were held in the communities of Covington, Louisville, and Whitesburg. From the mass of data and information gathered during the course of its relatively brief life, the Commission developed an all inclusive set of findings and recommendations. Although too numerous to include here, they are located throughout the text, and are listed in the Appendix.

The impetus for creating the Commission on Poverty came from an observation of the rise in Kentucky's poverty rates during the decade of the '80s. Following a measured decline in poverty from 1969 to 1979, Kentucky's poverty rate rose from 17.6 percent in 1979 to 19 percent in 1989. Most disturbing was data developed through the 1990 census that indicated that 25 percent of all children in Kentucky, and 28 percent of children under the age of 5, were living in poverty. The Commission was the legislature's response to the indications of growing numbers of people in poverty in Kentucky.

According to the 1990 census, 19 percent of all Kentuckians (approximately 682,000 individuals) have incomes below the federal poverty line. The state's poverty rate was the sixth highest in the nation for 1989, and has been consistently high over the last 30 years.

The largest numbers of poor people are found in urban areas; the counties with the highest poverty rates are rural, and concentrated in the eastern part of the state. Analysis of demographic data indicates that the geographic distribution of poverty is different for various subgroups of the poor, and that having a job is the single most important characteristic of adults in determining whether their families live above or below poverty. Chapter II describes in detail the characteristics of subgroups of the poor, determines what demographic factors are most helpful in explaining poverty, and examines some implications for antipoverty policy.

Myths and misconceptions about the poor are examined in Chapter III. Although it is commonly believed that the poor are the same everywhere in Kentucky and have the same problems, the characteristics of the poor actually vary among regions of the state. Another misconception is that most poor Kentuckians receive some sort of public assistance. According to 1990 Census data, only one-fourth of the adults living with children in poverty reported receiving any income from public assistance.

The Commission discovered that poor women and poor men often encounter different problems when struggling to overcome poverty. Poor, single mothers face a low-earnings capacity, an absence of economies of scale, a low level of support provided by public assistance programs, an absence of child support payments, and a lack of affordable child care and health care. Men in poverty receive little guidance in obtaining academic or vocational education and little to no explanation of services available through the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Program (JOBS) and the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). In addition, they have limited options for employment counseling. Chapter IV examines the obstacles to self-sufficiency facing each gender and recommends ways to minimize these obstacles.

Chapter V broadens its focus by describing barriers to self-sufficiency that are common to all poor Kentuckians. In particular, several obstacles involving Kentucky's AFDC, JOBS, and Medicaid programs are discussed. For example, the ratable-reduction system in the AFDC Program yields cash payments that are not sufficient to raise a family above the poverty line. Self-employed AFDC recipients often experience difficulty in generating and keeping the necessary capital to start their own businesses because of federal regulations governing their assets. Kentucky's Transitional Child Care Assistance Program does not allow enough time for participants to achieve self-sufficiency and begin to pay the high cost of child care on their own. Other problems concern the absence of any requirement for mothers who are 20 and older to participate in the life-skills training component of the JOBS Program and the inadequate transportation allowances given to some rural JOBS participants. Recommendations designed to minimize if not eliminate these problems are presented. In lieu of possible "block granting" of federal AFDC and Medicaid programs, this chapter also suggests ways to administer block grants, including preferred funding levels for poverty-related categorical programs.

The role of economic development programs in poverty reduction cannot be ignored. Chapter VI reviews Kentucky's tax incentive and loan programs, describes some of the shortcomings in the Commonwealth Venture Fund, and explores special topics such as the role of technology and the role of public-private partnerships in economic development. The Commission found several problems in current development programs. For example, there is no significant effort to require the recipients of state tax incentives and loans to hire the poor or unemployed. Also absent are programs designed to encourage the development of jobs through the creation of small, high-risk businesses, identify potential entrepreneurs for indigenous businesses, and assist private, non-profit organizations in their efforts to foster local economic development. Further, Kentucky's development programs do not guarantee that wages paid by employers receiving state subsidies will be sufficient to support a family above the poverty level and they do not require these employers to provide health care and dependent care benefits. Recommendations are made to strengthen development programs and to create a vision for future development efforts.

Education, vocation, and literacy programs targeted to the economically and educationally impoverished are the focus of Chapter VII. Unsurprisingly, the Commission discovered one major problem in these areas: lack of funding. Other problems involve the limited availability of child care services for students in secondary, postsecondary, and adult education programs and the apparent failure of Kentucky's educational system to produce skilled workers for clerical and technical occupations. Recommendations to correct these problems are presented.

The Commission examined the issue of access to higher education in Chapter VIII. Financial aid programs, outreach activities, and publications geared to low-income students are reviewed in this chapter along with some special topics of interest, including the skills-mismatch phenomenon in postsecondary education and vocational programs, the negative social perception of vocational education, and the concept of articulation among community colleges and vocational-technical schools. Unsurprisingly, the Commission found that low-income students experience difficulty in attending higher education institutions mainly because of limited funding of state financial aid programs. Other problems concern the difficulty in disseminating information about higher education opportunities to low-income students and the inability of vocational-technical schools to adequately consider the employment needs of their service areas when developing course offerings. The Commission also noted that community colleges and vocational-technical schools are moving too slowly in their efforts to create articulation agreements.

States around the country, and even organizations within Kentucky, have recently developed innovative ways to deliver social services to clients. Chapter IX briefly describes some of these innovations and highlights the Oregon Commission on Families and Children. The Oregon Commission and others like it reflect a new concern for tailoring social services to the needs of local areas and promoting not only poverty reduction but the empowerment of local communities.

Chapter X summarizes the lessons learned by Commission members over the last year and presents the Commission's vision for future antipoverty and community-empowerment policy.

Methodologies used in this report include review of literature, analysis of information and testimony provided by officials from numerous governmental and nongovernmental agencies, and statistical analysis of census data. Most importantly, the Commission drew upon citizen testimony from its public hearings.