Michigan Welfare Program For Poor Families Tied To Kid’s School Attendance

by Progressive Populist/Progressive Populist

As we kick off the school year, folks in the state of Michigan will have to deal with another example of a draconian law passed by a Republican majority. This time, it was the Republican-majority Michigan House and Senate, and their Republican governor, Rick Snyder.

This past spring, the state passed a law, formally called House Bill 4388, that ties welfare assistance to school attendance for families with school-aged children between the ages of 6 and 15. There was already a similar policy in place for just kids 16 to 18 years old. So essentially, all school-aged children are now included.

Specifically, the law would make families of children who miss 10 or more days of school ineligible for the state’s Family Independence Program, which provides an average of$400 a month to needy families in the state.

This bill was tied with another Republican-sponsored bill (House bill 4118) that requires drug testing of welfare recipients who are suspected of doing drugs. If they fail the test, they lose the benefits from the Family Independence Program.

So here we have a double-dose of laws aimed at ostracizing poor people. There are several reasons why kids may have to miss school. They could have a contagious illness, be involved in an accident, their means of transportation to school could be disabled, and a whole host of other reasons. Why punish a financially struggling family even more, and box them further into a corner, by implementing a bill that ties school attendance to welfare?

And what about families who do not qualify for welfare, but who have children that miss 10 or more days of school? Why are they not punished financially?

Basically, this law is saying that if you are poor, it’s all your fault and due to your own personal choices. There are more reasons why families are poor than could fit into this article, but suffice to say that just because a family is poor and receives welfare does not mean that they are too irresponsible to send their children to school.

And it is a very distinct possibility that this law is motivated by federal dollars funding public schools being tied to school attendance.

So shame on Michigan Republicans (and the Democrats who voted for it) for passing this draconian law.

Michigan lawmaker proposes drug testing welfare recipients

By Eric W. Dolan/Raw Story

Michigan state Rep. Jeff Farrington (R) has introduced legislation to the state legislature that would require low-income families with children and pregnant women to pass a drug test before receiving temporary government assistance.

The legislation requires applicants to the state’s Family Independence Program to pay for the drug test, even if the test fails to uncover drug use.

The program helps impoverished families pay for living expenses, including rent, heat, utilities and personal care items.

Florida and Missouri passed laws this year that require all applicants to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) welfare program to undergo a drug test.

Michigan previously tried to implement a welfare drug testing law, but it was struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in 2003.

U.S. District Court Judge Victoria Roberts held that testing welfare recipients “could be used for testing the parents of all children who received Medicaid, State Emergency Relief, educational grants or loans, public education or any other benefit from that State.”

Throwing the poor off the welfare rolls in Michigan based on a myth

Eclectablog/blogging for Michigan/Eclectablog

Last week, Michigan governor Rick Snyder signed into law a bill that ends welfare benefits for 41,000 Michiganders. Until then, there was no limit to how long poor people in Michigan could receive benefits. The law ends payments after four years. Nearly 30,000 children are affected by this axe which will save the state $77.4 million annually, according to the Senate Fiscal Agency.

According to Rep. Ken Horn, who sponsored the bill, this will end the stampede of poor people flooding into Michigan to collect endless benefits.

Except that the idea that this is happening is a myth.

To hear state Rep. Ken Horn tell it, the four-year limit on cash assistance that Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law this week is just what’s needed to stop the stampede of unemployed people pouring into Michigan from other states with less-generous welfare benefits.

“In this state, we are losing hardworking families and taxpayers and gaining people who were moving here for our entitlement programs,” the third-term Frankenmuth Republican told the New York Times for a front-page story on how Michigan and other states are slashing help for poor people.

~SNIP~

Karen Holcomb-Merrill, policy director for the Michigan League for Human Services, says Michigan has actually witnessed one of the nation’s larger decreases in cash-assistance cases over the past few years.

Between October 2007 and October 2010, Holcomb-Merrill said, Michigan saw a 3.7% decrease in its caseload — the 11th-highest reduction in the nation and the second highest in the Midwest. Only Minnesota had a larger caseload reduction (-12.1%). Iowa (7.2%), Illinois (20.2%), Ohio (30.2%) and Wisconsin (37.8%) all had caseload increases between 2007 and 2010.

~SNIP~

“There are not people moving here to get benefits,” said Gilda Jacobs, the former Democratic state senator who now serves as president of the League of Human Services. “That’s a myth.”

When Brian Dickerson of the Detroit Free Press confronted Horn about this, he claimed it was based on “anecdotal evidence…that people are coming to Michigan for benefits”.

In other words, to save $77.4 million, Michigan Republicans and our governor are willing to throw close to 30,000 kids into far more dire straits than they are already in and it’s based on a myth, on anecdotal evidence completely unsupported by the facts.

Well-played, you heartless bastards. Well-played.

Rick Snyder makes Dick Cheney look compassionate

By Patrick Diehl/Blogging for Michigan 

Why isn’t anyone else seeing Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s latest move – limiting the amount of cash poor people can receive from the state to four years – for what it is: an attempt to recapture revenue lost when he cut taxes for his business buddies earlier this year?

The same politician who decided back in May that corporations in Michigan deserved a $1.7 billion tax cut has now decided to slash $60 million in public assistance payments.

The same politician who exempted around 100,000 businesses from paying any corporate income tax at all has decided to add to the burden shouldered by low-income families.

The Michigan League for Human Services estimates that 41,000 people will lose their cash assistance payments on October 1 when the state’s new budget year begins. This includes 29,700 children, according to the Michigan Department of Human Services.

Almost 30,000 poor kids will have less so that Rick Snyder’s pals can have more.

Consider this:

• Snyder’s plan represents about $30 in corporate tax cuts for every dollar saved in welfare benefit cuts.

• Michigan’s July unemployment rate was 10.9 percent, tied with South Carolina for third-highest in the nation.

• About 23 percent of Michigan’s children lived in poverty in 2009, compared with 20 percent nationally.

• Things have gotten worse. In 2000, only 14 percent of Michigan children lived in poverty.

• The average age of a child in a family receiving cash assistance is around seven years old.

• The Michigan Catholic Conference is among those objecting to the four-year limit. The conference said the effect will be felt for years by society and by children who lose services.

One of the few substantive utterances Snyder made on the campaign trail last year was that he intended to make reducing the number of children living in poverty a priority of his administration.

Finally! A politician making good on a campaign promise!

I’m so tired of this.