Fiscal Alliance Says MA in ‘Dire Need’ of Welfare Reform
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
"The welfare of taxpayer money should be a high priority for everything our state government does," said Paul D. Craney, Executive Director of Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, in a statement. "Last year, our elected leaders passed reform minded legislation for EBT cards and welfare assistance. It's time those reforms were put into practice.”
Massachusetts was recently named the fourth biggest welfare state in the country by CNBC, with 2.09 percent of the Commonwealth's population assistance and 2007 spending of $295.29 million. Monahan recently took over as interim Commissioner of the Department of Transitional Assistance after her predecesor, Daniel Curley, was forced to resign when a report showed 47,000 families received welfare funds were unable to be accounted for and $30 million in food stamps were distributed to ineligible people.
Earlier this year, state officials also found that 19,000 of Massachusetts' welfare recipients could not be accounted for after mailings sent to them ended up back in state mailboxes marked "return to sender." With their status unknown, some have speculated that at least a portion of the 19,000 may not even reside in the Commonwealth and receive benefits anyway.
The state Legislature did pass some reforms for EBT cards, which serve as limited-use debit cards for those receiving government assistance, but a number of lawmakers and observers have maintained that those reforms did not go far enough.
“I think in the last two years, we’ve struggled to be move forward on welfare reform," state Rep. Shaunna O'Connell (R-Taunton) told GoLocalWorcester last month.
"We’ve gotten some good bipartisan legislation passed however there seems to be hesitancy to do the bold reforms that it will take to ensure a system that does not ensure waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars."
One piece of legislation currently on the table on Beacon Hill is House Bill No. 90, which proposes that EBT cards include photo identification. House Bill No. 92 would require the annual registration of residents receiving transitional assistance benefits, unlike the one-time registration system currently in place. House Bill No. 133 would introduce a series of identity verification measures to eliminate fraud from the state's welfare programs.
"The best way we can reduce the growing unemployment, underemployment and those on welfare assistance is put into place laws that help make Massachusetts more economically competitive with our neighboring states,” said Craney.
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Comments:
Harry Huckum
9:34am on Tuesday, March 05, 2013
We are only the fourth biggest welfare state. The liberals must be so proud.
Next year maybe we'll be number one.
Sandy Williamson
1:24pm on Tuesday, March 05, 2013
So if House Bill No. 90, proposes that EBT cards include photo identification, I'd like to see which of our Reps and Senators are against this; moreover, why are against it. And no fair saying it would be too expensive. The cost of the pictures would easily be covered by fraction of the current fraud costs. And the same goes for House Bill No. 92. You can't tell me that recipients don't get "lost" in the system without some regular verification. Lastly, who could argue that House Bill No. 133 with identity verification enhancements would be a problem? Shouldn't we ascertain the true identity of folks that are receiving benefits from the taxpayers?
Christopher Pinto
2:09pm on Tuesday, March 05, 2013
H 55 and H 57 already went down in flames (mostly) along party lines.
Sandy, do you really think that guys like John Mahoney and Jim O'Day are going to votes against the speaker and risk losing their committee chairmanship's and the additional $7,500 dollars in pay for being a chair?
Mahoney and O'Day will vote for their own self interest, and against the tax payers, every single time.
If the speaker says no photo ID, then these guys will vote with him and against cleaning up the fraud.
A drunken chimpanzee could do that job. All you have to do is train them to watch how the speaker votes and press the same button.
Sandy Williamson
2:42pm on Tuesday, March 05, 2013
So that's how it works! You mean our Reps need no brains(lucky for them). They just need to do exactly as the Speaker says. And they did that when the last three felons were Speaker too? Amazing. Who knew?
Christopher Pinto
2:50pm on Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Most of the Democrats vote 99% of the time with the Speaker/Senate Prez.
A few of them like Rep John Fresolo and Senator Richard Moore actually think before they vote. What a concept, huh?
Coincidentally Fresolo does not get the extra pay for chairing anything. He take the right votes for the taxpayer and then he does not get any extra pay for chairing or vice chairng anything. Imagine that ... a democrat with principles.
The speaker saves those positions to reward his obedient followers.