Lynch names TANF council members

Governor John Lynch has appointed a bipartisan group of members to his TANF Advisory Council, which is being formed to monitor the implementation of changes to the state’s welfare program and recommend improvements to the governor.

‘We must make sure we move people from welfare to lasting employment and self-sufficiency,’ Lynch said. ‘The members of this advisory council will monitor the implementation of changes to our TANF program to make sure we are meeting that goal, and recommend to me ways we can improve.’

Lynch issued an executive order last week directing the Department of Health and Human Services to take a number of actions to ensure successful implementation of the changes to the TANF program, including removing child-care and transportation as barriers to employment, avoiding shifting costs to local property taxpayers, reporting to the governor and legislative leaders monthly on success on moving people from welfare to self-sufficiency and establishing the advisory council.

The council will be co-chaired by Republican state Sen. Dick Green and Mary Anne Broshek, a former TANF administrator with 30 years’ experience with health and human service issues.

The other members of the advisory council are: John Crosier, former president of New Hampshire’s Business & Industry Association, Rep. Mary Jane Wallner; Keith Bates, welfare director for Portsmouth and president of the New Hampshire Association of Local Welfare Administrators; Theresa de Langis, executive director of the New Hampshire Commission on the Status of Women; and Jackie Heuser, senior workforce director for the Workforce Opportunity Council. – NHBR STAFF