State public-assistance programs should be there to provide support in times of need but designed to emphasize the importance of self-sufficiency. An exciting new law in the Show-Me State is promoting a pathway to self-sufficiency. Government-welfare programs are meant to be a safety net and not trap families in dependency. Missouri is showing other states how to avoid the poverty trap, an issue I have been working on for over 40 years.

In 1983, I wrote an economic study titled The Tightening Grip of the Poverty Trap, illustrating how detrimental it was for families receiving public assistance to try to better their family's outlook through gainful employment. That year, if a family of four increased its monthly income from $0 to $1,300 (equivalent to $4,000 in 2023), the family would lose its welfare benefits, and its spending power would fall by $47 (equivalent to $145 in 2023). The family would have been better off not working at all.

At that time, I called for conservative policies like the one recently enacted in Missouri. Public-assistance programs should be seen as a helping hand and not a program that traps families into a cycle of poverty. A family of four would not jeopardize their standard of living and would likely turn down a pay raise, overtime work, or a new job if it meant significant cuts in their take-home spending power.

Missouri's new law creating a transitional benefit program is transformational.

Missouri's new welfare-reform policy establishes a transitional benefits program for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), designed to help individuals whose monthly income has exceeded the maximum allowable amount for program eligibility. Recipients of transitional benefits will be required to comply with all program requirements, including work requirements. Benefits received under this act will not be included in the lifetime limit for TANF benefits. As the recipient's income increases, the amount of state support through public-assistance programs decreases until the recipient has successfully worked their way off the state's welfare programs.

To ensure that only those who qualify for public assistance receive benefits, Missouri's new policy limits initial applications for public-assistance programs to a concise, non-duplicative, and easily accessible form on the Department of Social Services website. Eligibility-review forms may also be submitted as attachments to Missouri state income-tax returns and will be made accessible on the Department of Revenue website.

Missouri's measures will help ensure public-assistance programs are well-targeted to those in need, while also maintaining program integrity and sustainability. By helping more Missourians achieve self-sufficiency and upward mobility, the state is building stronger families, stronger communities, and a stronger Missouri for all.

The architect of Missouri's new welfare-reform law is state senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman (R., 22nd district). What she accomplished is monumental and ought to become a national movement. States across the country should model their reforms after Senator Coleman's bill, incentivizing gainful employment by creating a pathway for Missourians in need of support so they can continue receiving benefits incrementally reduced over time as their income increases.

We conservatives know that the best form of welfare is still a good job. The new public-assistance program in Missouri is helping Missourians by creating a pathway to financial freedom and prosperity by emphasizing the importance of a job. State public-assistance programs should be there to provide support in times of need but designed to emphasize the importance of a job in putting recipients on a pathway to self-sufficiency.

Now the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services must implement Senator Coleman's reform so that Missourians can begin to benefit from it. We look forward to Missouri Governor Mike Parson's administration swiftly implementing this welfare reform policy and hope other governors across the country take similar action to reform our broken welfare system.

State public-assistance programs should be there to provide support in times of need but designed to emphasize the importance of self-sufficiency.

Mr. Laffer, chairman of Laffer Associates, is co-author, with Stephen Moore, of Return to Prosperity: How America Can Regain Its Economic Superpower Status.