He said that El Paso County is looking to do a performance based maintenance of effort. Mr. Bremer said that El Paso County would first use their reserves on cash assistance, before child care. He pointed out that counties have the flexibility to transfer under certain circumstances. Committee discussion centered on how counties are handling their reserves. Mr. Bremer said that adequate county information systems are needed for TANF programs.
Programs have to be manually tracked.
Mark Tandberg, DOHS, commented on the Colorado benefit management system and how it would assist with tracking TANF programs. Counties have participated extensively in the planning process for this system. He elaborated on components of the program and the RFP and on line dates associated with the automated system. Representative Leyba asked if literacy and primary education is the basic barrier in the Denver caseload. Ms. Sanchez said that these issues and substance abuse and mental health the primary barriers.