Examines two goals of anti-poverty programs beyond reducing the number of people in income poverty and increasing public expenditures disproportionately benefiting the poor: that inequality of income should be substantially narrowed, and that benefits for the poor must meet their needs. (Author/JM)

Too much of the debate over the five-year, 30 billion dollar program of State and Local Assistance has focussed on its presumed or theoretical impact. Too little has dealt with what actually happens when the quarterly Treasury checks arrive at the local level. Local-level studies that are under way concentrate heavily on the fiscal impact of…