The urban impacts of the Program for Better Jobs and Income, the recent but unsuccessful attempt to reform the welfare system, are analyzed in this paper. The proposed results of this program indicate that these urban impacts would have been minimal, but consistent with an urban policy that seeks to improve the economic viability of distressed urban areas. The program would have reduced the incidence of poverty, reduced income disparities among individuals and among urban areas, reinforced current regional growth trends, and concentrated fiscal relief on States now making relatively high welfare payments. While it would have distributed public service jobs toward urban areas with low per capita income, it would have failed to target them toward areas with the most serious unemployment problems. (Author/GC)