Pa Gov. Corbett plan for food-stamp assets test not going to save Pa a single dime

Corbett wrong on food stamps plan

Gov. Tom Corbett’s plan to implement asset testing for food stamp recipients is wrong and mean-spirited.

Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley said an asset test will be implemented by the Department of Public Welfare in the coming months, but the administration has not decided its dollar-value level.

In a letter to the federal government late last month, the agency said it was considering a bar on recipients who have more than $2,00 in savings or other assets subject to the rule, or more than $3,250 for people who are over 60 or disabled.

On Thursday at a press conference at City Hall, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Mayor Michael Nutter, U.S. Rep. Bob Brady and state Sens. Vincent Hughes and Shirley Kitchen urged Corbett to reconsider the plan slated to start May 1.

“This is one of the most mean-spirited, asinine plans to come out of Harrisburg in a long time,” said Mayor Nutter.

Vilsack refuted the Corbett administration’s stated reason for implementing asset tests — cost-cutting and fraud prevention — saying that Pennsylvania already had one of the lowest fraud rates in the nation, and added the program is funded by the federal government.

“It’s not going to save the commonwealth of Pennsylvania a single dime,” Vilsack said.

“The money for the program is federally funded. Number two, it’s likely going to cost the commonwealth of Pennsylvania money because when you institute an asset test you have to make sure that you create a process by which those applications are reviewed.”

On Wednesday, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell warned that an asset test would be expensive to administer and harmful to the economy, particularly in poor neighborhoods where food stamps are often a major source of business for small grocery stores.

“They’re not all minority, they’re not all urban dwellers,” Rendell said at a Capitol news conference with about a dozen state House Democrats. “They’re our neighbors.”

If the Corbett administration’s plan is costly and unnecessary why is it being proposed?

The answer is gutter politics.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s attacks on the food stamps program and calling President Obama “the food stamps president,” were thinly disguised racial code words that helped him win the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina.

Gingrich linked food stamps with Blacks although the majority of the people using food stamps are not African American. According to 2010 Census numbers, about 26 percent of food stamp recipients are African American, 49 percent are white and 20 percent are Hispanic.

At a time when Americans are facing sustained unemployment and rising food prices, Corbett and conservative Republicans are shamelessly attacking one of the most reliable safety nets for families who suddenly find themselves unable to pay for food.

http://www.phillytrib.com/commentaryarticles/item/2513-corbett-wrong-on-food-stamps-plan.html

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HARRISBURG, Pa. — The administration of Gov. Tom Corbett is relaxing the guidelines of an asset test it wants to impose on people seeking food stamps, and now says it wants to set a $5,500 limit, and $9,000 for households with a disabled or elderly member.

The Department of Public Welfare said Wednesday it submitted the plan to the federal government as part of its effort to ensure the needy get help while public money is spent wisely.

A previous plan by the administration set the asset test at what critics said would meet the most stringent limits allowed by federal law, including no more than $2,000 for regular households.

Advocates for the poor had said that level is unusually punitive and will create barriers for people who genuinely need the federal benefit.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/02/gov_tom_corbett_eases_pennsylv.html

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