Federal law requires at least half of welfare recipients be employed or seeking work. Ohio has not complied with that since 2007. Now, Washington has lost its patience and threatened to levy fines so stiff they would threaten the state's ability to fund welfare programs needed by tens of thousands of families.2007. So it wasn't an inherited problem for the Strickland administration. It started under Strickland. And the Kasich administration had to get creative to fix it, but also has a long term plan.
Kasich administration officials came up with a creative way to hit the 50 percent mark. They are expanding the state's welfare program to more families with children. Only working families will qualify for the new benefit - of $10 a month.From a massive $8 billion budget hole, to not complying with federal welfare rules, Ted Strickland left Ohio with a lot of problems. And while John Kasich goes about cleaning up Ted's mess, all Ted can do is classlessly bash his successor from the sidelines. Sad.
Placing the new recipients in the welfare pool will increase the total percentage of those working to over the 50 percent threshold.
State officials are not stopping there. They also are implementing plans to increase the number of people already on welfare who have jobs or are seeking them actively. So, while the method of avoiding the $136 million fine initially doesn't sound appealing, the overall strategy is.
The Intelligencer agrees.
Again, had the Strickland administration done more to comply with the law, Kasich's would not have had to resort to what amounts to trickery. Presumably federal officials are taking that into account in allowing the practice.
The near-fiasco is one more example of how Ohioans now are scrambling - and sometimes sacrificing - to make up for four years of deceptive government under Strickland.
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Why did Scotts Miracle Grow have Sherrod Brown and Ted Strickland to their Marysville campus this week? Are they looking for a bailout?
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