As if we needed more proof of Rick Perry’s inability to govern, comes news that the food stamp program in Texas is broken.
Come on down and I'll share a some more of Guv Good Hair's latest epic failure with you..
Poor service delivery, out of control spending and guess who suffers? Texans trying to put food on the table, certainly not Rick Perry.
Some citizens in Dallas have waited up to as much 150 days--5 months to get food stamps, is it any wonder local food banks are covered up by hungry folks and not enough groceries to feed them all?
A few days ago the Austin Statesman ran a story about food stamps in Texas. The program is in such a frantic mess the federal regional director, William Ludwig has suggested Texas needs a food stamp czar to clean up the fall out from a long series of bad decisions by Perry’s administration. Currently there is a huge backlog of applications waiting to be processed and still more applications riddled with processing errors. To further complicate matters, Texas could lose its food stamp funding by continuing to miss the federally mandated 30 day processing time limit. In September the agency processed only 41.4% of applications on time.
A few years back in keeping with the GWB spirit of privatization, the Perry administration decided apply stern cost cutting efforts to the food stamp program and privatize it. The program was to be shifted to a private organization at that time as a result thousands of state employees were also laid off. A year or so ago, the state stopped the privatization effort because it was a complete bust and then some. But the bottom line is the damage is done and now Texas finds itself saddled with a program bereft of enough workers to handle the high volume of applications and playing catch up at time when demand for services is high and growing more so. Now, add to an already stressed situation, state enrollment workers working overtime to the tune of 2.5 million dollars in August alone and you have the makings of an agency shifting in critical mass mode. Lousy delivery of services, high management costs, lack of personnel and no one taking responsibility. Yep, that sounds like a Perry administration mantra to me.
The current agency head, Tom Suehs is working with the federal government to try and amend the problems, by allowing local offices to move with more autonomy and by filling some 400 vacant jobs to help move the paperwork along. However, as the federal region officer points outs, the entire application process could be made easier if Texas did away with some of the more tedious application requirements such as finger printing individuals and curtailing an assets spin down. (It seems as though every assistance program in Texas is bogged down by requirements serving no other purpose than to make getting assistance so difficult people will give up.)
Seuhs replied to the suggested changes by saying both requirements were a part of state law and he would have to wait until 2011 when the Texas congress is in session before any changes could be made. While I am appalled by that, it‘s true. The Texas legislature meets every two years. There have been special sessions but even Perry is loathe to call a special session because of the ramifications. Especially over one singular issue--And in an election forget it, it won’t happen. But isn’t it grand how Jon Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchinson can ask for 3 billion dollars to help NASA, but they can’t seem to do much to feed Texas families in need. We are so screwed in this state.
The story is here with more detail than I’ve gone into in this diary....
I know some people around here have a harsh opinion of Texans, but not all of us are wingnuts--and even wingnuts have little wingnuts to feed... Times are hard, but wherever you are, if you can spare a little something from your pantry to share with those hurting in your community, please donate to your local food bank, they need all the help they can get.