Republicans promise cost-savings, can’t say how much
By Eric Boehm | PA Independent
HARRISBURG — House Republicans on Wednesday officially introduced a package of reforms taking aim at fraud and abuse within the Pennsylvania welfare system.
The new proposals include drug testing for welfare recipients, stiffer penalties for fraud, a prohibition on using welfare benefits to purchase tobacco products and additional electronic verification checks for eligibility. Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, said the package would restore integrity to the state’s welfare system.
“We do believe there needs to be significant change as we go forward with regard to welfare spending and accountability in this state,” Turzai said.
Though long-term cost savings are expected during the course of several years as the Department of Public Welfare cracks down on fraud rates, the potential cost savings are difficult to predict, but could reach “hundreds of millions of dollars” in the first year, according to several Republicans who refused to be more specific.
Last year, Auditor General Jack Wagner estimated $400 million in savings could be found by cutting down on waste, fraud and abuse in DPW.
“Even if it was 50 percent of (the auditor general’s projections), that’s $200 million in fraud and errors alone,” state Rep. Bill Adolph, R-Delaware, said. “I think there are definite instant savings.”
Gov. Tom Corbett and other administration officials – including DPW Secretary Gary Alexander – have said the savings likely will not be available until fiscal year 2012-13 because cutting extensive amounts of fraud from the system will take time.
Among the eight-bill package is a proposal to impose random drug testing for welfare recipients with a drug conviction within the past five years. Twenty percent of all recipients would be tested once every six months. The program would cost about $1 million to implement.
Long-term savings are difficult to project because it’s very hard to determine how many people will test positive for drugs or will not enter the system because they know they will test positive, state Rep. Dave Reed, R-Indiana said.
“That’s a number that we’ll look at after the first year or two years of the program,” Reed said.
More extensive testing is not possible because of constitutional limits on random drug testing. The Supreme Court struck down a Michigan law requiring random drug tests for all welfare recipients.
A second bill would prohibit the use of welfare cash assistance debit cards for the purchase of tobacco products. An amendment to the bill approved in committee Tuesday would also ban the use of the cards in the state’s casinos.
Several of the provisions in the reform package are aimed at increasing oversight and accountability, including a plan to limit benefits to the level offered by the recipients’ permanent address, regardless of where the benefit application was made, and a plan to establish a computer database system to cross-check the eligibility of recipients by running applications through 19 databases.
The computer program would use an applicants’ Social Security number to check for unreported income, immigration status, birth and death certificates, prison information and child care benefits, among other things, state Rep. Mauree Gingrich, R-Lebanon, said.
The new system would have no additional costs because it already exists, and the new rules would simply require that DPW use it, Reed said.
Some Democrats doubt whether substantial savings could be pulled from the department.
State Rep. James Roebuck, D-Philadelphia, said Republicans frequently point to specific instances of welfare abuse, but that does not indicate widespread fraud.
“I recognize there are abuses on every level of government, but I don’t think welfare is any worse than other parts of government,” Roebuck said.
Several Democrats declined to comment because they said they had not yet had a chance to look at the proposal.
Republican leaders maintained it was important to root out the abuses of the system even if it resulted in only small savings this year.
“There’s going to be some savings in year one, but the real savings will be in the out years,” Reed said. “These are focused on integrity and accountability.”
He said better numbers would be available after fiscal notes are attached to the bills by the House Appropriations Committee.
In Corbett’s proposed budget for next year, the DPW surpassed the Department of Education as the state’s most expensive department, thanks to a $600 million increase for welfare and a $1.6 billion cut to education, mostly targeted at higher education.
House Republicans have been critical of that balance, and earlier this week Turzai told reporters that cuts to DPW could help restore some of the proposed cuts in education.
Republican leaders on Wednesday were hesitant to deliver a definitive statement about the savings to be had, but said they still plan to restore a portion of the education cuts.
The state House will release its proposed budget within the next few weeks, Reed said.
“Each and every dollar that we’re able to restore as a result of bringing integrity and accountability to the system is an extra dollar to help those who truly need help,” Reed said.
