CAPITOL Welfare recipients seek benefits hike Advocates say payments are inadequate BY VALERIE BAUMAN The Associated Press
A class action lawsuit against New York state on behalf of hundreds of thousands of welfare recipients seeks to increase the welfare grant, which hasn’t changed since 1990. Attorneys representing three anti-poverty groups for no fee said the state’s inaction violated the constitution and has created a class of citizens forced to live in poverty. The state Assembly passed an increase in the welfare grant, but it didn’t survive the Republican-led Senate. According to the suit, the current grant provides assistance equal to less than half of the national poverty level. New York has 501,049 residents receiving temporary public assistance, according to September 2008 records from the New York state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. That’s a nearly 70 percent decrease from 12 years ago, said Michael Hayes, a spokesman for the agency. A family of three receives $291 a month, plus a housing allowance that varies by county. In New York City that allowance brings the assistance to $691, while in Albany it’s $600 a month, according to the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation has increased about 65 percent since 1990. Officials in Gov. David Paterson’s office said they are reviewing the suit. Paterson, along with the state of New York, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver are named as defendants in the suit. The state has added more than $170 million in additional food stamp benefits for New Yorkers and enrolled an additional 100,000 households in the food stamps program in the past year to help lowincome families, according to .......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01602
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
People are getting laid off left and right and the people on welfare are suing the state for more money? You must be kidding me! Do these people even realize that the more people out of work means LESS money going into our tax system that pays their welfare benefits? GET A JOB!! (if you can find one)
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
First published in print: Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Say, New Yorkers, come check out the Cadillac.
Kick the balding tires. Run your hands over the body rot. Take a peek at how low the gas gauge is.
One of the classic American luxury cars is Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco's analogy of choice as he objects to raising the state's basic welfare grant for the first time in 18 years.
"Our role during the best and worst of economic times, in any budget process, is first of all to think of taking care of those most in need," he says, before segueing into this galling contradiction:
"But I also think that we have the Cadillac of welfare services in New York state. We have services galore for people in need. I don't think now's the time to expand them."
Some Cadillac. A family of three that's been trying to get by on the same monthly grant of $291 since 1990 would be lucky to be living in an aging Cadillac, let alone driving one. With inflation, remember, that grant is worth 65 percent of what it was in 1990.
The typical welfare family could have their meals in that big boat of a car, dining on whatever it is that $426 a month in food stamps will buy.
Oh, and the housing allowance of about $300 a month that welfare families get in addition to their monthly grant?
Think of the shopping sprees they must go on with that money, since, you know, they prefer living in the Cadillac, with all that leg room and arm room.
Someone is taking Mr. Tedisco, a Republican from Schenectady, for quite a spin if he thinks living this way constitutes a level of comfort that New York can't afford to improve. Oddly, he used to support increasing benefits.
Here's Governor Paterson proposing a 30 percent increase in the basic welfare grant over the next three years. That same family of three would be getting $387 a month, rather than $291.
What'll Mr. Tedisco call that? The Bentley of welfare services?
Yes, state spending needs to be cut, and drastically so. Mr. Paterson is being quite aggressive about it, in case Mr. Tedisco hasn't noticed. But some spending has to be increased, too.
Imagine the battering welfare recipients are taking during this economic crisis when their benefits are well below the federal poverty level. It's to New York's shame that it didn't raise the basic welfare grant when it was running up budget surpluses as recently as ....................http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=750900&category=OPINION
Let's see....is our welfare system a Madoff ponzi scheme??? what are it's values, positives etc.....what are the negatives...... I'm sure the politicos have weighed it ALL.....increase benefits....you bet they're gonna....they know the unemployment numbers aren't looking so hot and wont be getting better anytime soon......how do you keep a desperate robber/thief from breaking in and stealing/killing----give it to him her first.....pay them off.......what is our government's job?,,,to prevent chaos and anarchy.......
As for it being a Madoff ponzi scheme....that is saved for election time and the 'podium games'.....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Our local assemblyman, who is among the "leaders" of the state Legislature, really showed how far from reality he and most of his fellow legislators are. I speak of [Assembly Minority Leader] Jim Tedisco, who the other day [according to the Times Union’s Capitol Confidential blog] implied that the proposed increase in the welfare grant to $387 a month from $291 for a family of three, or $3,492 per year — where it has remained since 1990 — shouldn't be considered given that the state faces a budget shortfall. I'd like to see Mr. Tedisco get by on that type of household income. Why he and the other legislators get more than that for per diems when they are in session. He should be ashamed of himself to deny these families, struggling more than most to get by, this modest and long-overdue increase. This is not a "Cadillac benefit" as he called it — it is barely surviving. NICHOLAS ROGONE Niskayuna
The taxpayers can't afford an increase in taxes to pay for more welfare and the state is broke, maybe the welfare recipients could consider moving to another state where there are better benefits if they can find one.
I guess these people who can't make it on welfare and are physically and mentally able, better go out and get a job or two like the rest of us. Or even a higher education at the taxpayer's expense. At least we would get a return for on our money...eventually!
And unfortunately, the other states are smarter than NYS. They aren't quite as generous with the taxpayer's money when it comes to welfare.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
I listened in horror as our governor shared his plan to save New York. Well, he may save New York, but our citizens are going to be nickled and dimed to death. I have no issue paying my share to help my state and its people. My problem is the method. Taxing soda, but not welfare reform? Put state employees out of work before making our healthy citizens who receive subsidies go to work? Why can't a person on social services do anything to contribute? I am sure that some of what the governor has planned will help. I am just suggesting that we cut the fat from the top. I would support these necessary fees, and sin taxes, if we also saw a real investigation of what our welfare costs are and a plan to help those in need help themselves and become contributing citizens.
Remember, Reagan era degregulated the 'facilities' that housed alot of the folks on welfare today.......so,,,,,,,what do we do?....either way, they live among us........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Advocates want expanded welfare funding BY VALERIE BAUMAN The Associated Press
ALBANY — New York is buried in a historic recession, facing rising food prices and greater living expenses, and anti-poverty groups argue that it’s more urgent than ever to increase the state’s welfare grant. The day before Gov. David Paterson was scheduled to deliver his State of the State message, anti-poverty groups called Tuesday for what would be the first increase in the welfare grant since 1990 and expanded access to Medicaid. Paterson wants to increase the welfare grant in 2010 to provide a family of three with $387 a month by 2012, up from the current $291 a month, plus a housing allowance that varies by region. In New York City, that allowance brings the assistance to $691, while in Albany, it’s $600 a month, according to the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. If passed, Paterson’s proposal would benefi t about 200,000 households. While the groups praised his proposal, many argued that more is needed. “People are losing their homes, their jobs and their life savings,” said Mark Dunlea, executive director of New York’s Hunger Action Network. “So far, the government has focused on bailing out those who created the problem rather than the victims. We need ......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01403
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