Names can be deceiving, and smart consumers should look beyond the labels to see what they are buying.

That’s also true for legislators who are working through the governor’s budget proposal, especially when they are reviewing what’s being sold as welfare reform. What they are asked to buy is less like a reform and more like a cost shift, moving the burden from the state to a handful of communities.

What’s under the ax is general assistance, a state-mandated program of emergency aid to people who have nowhere else to turn.

In most towns, the cost is shared equally with the state. As the price grows as a percentage of total property value, the state share increases. Portland, Bangor, Lewiston and a few others receive the maximum state contribution of 90 percent. All the municipalities pay all the administrative costs,

Gov. Paul LePage has proposed cutting the top reimbursement rate to 75 percent, which would put the cities, where the need is the greatest, deepest in the hole. Portland administers 40 percent of the state’s program all on its own. The proposed change does not alter the cities’ responsibility. The program is still mandated and the eligibility standards are still the same. The only thing that is different is that local property taxpayers will pay a bigger share of the cost.

LePage has said he wants to save money by moving people from welfare to work, but this is not a fair way to reduce state spending.

General assistance is a last-resort program that is typically used as a short-term safety net, not for a lifestyle of dependency. Virtually all of the money distributed in Portland is used for food and rent assistance (usually for less than three months), with a small amount going to necessities such as heat, medications and diapers. All able-bodied recipients are required to participate in work projects for the city.

Programs that create opportunity would move people from welfare to work. Simply sending the bill to a different set of taxpayers does not do that.

The Legislature should be fair to the cities and find a way to keep this cost shift from happening.