First, the news…
Most of $2 billion for evacuees goes unused (nola.com)
Bruce Alpert
WASHINGTON — Six months after Congress established a $2 billion pool that states could use to provide cash grants to low-income hurricane evacuees who relocated to their communities, only 11 states have signed up for the program and drawn down only $25 million, or 1.25 percent of available money.
The sparse participation has perplexed some members of Congress, and disheartened advocates for the poor who see the unspent money as a lost opportunity to help struggling hurricane victims separated from their damaged or destroyed Gulf Coast homes.
Participation in the program was reported this week by the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based group that does “investigative journalism in the public interest.”
Louisiana used nearly $1 million to provide help through the state’s Louisiana Family Recovery Corp., according to the state’s Department of Social Services.
But 38 other states where storm victims fled didn’t seek aid under the contingency fund, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The department estimates that 420,000 families were displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
But some states, such as Arkansas and New York, decided to use their existing welfare money, not wanting to go through the bureaucratic rigors of applying for the contingency funds. New York officials told the Center for Public Integrity that it used its existing welfare financing to provide $667,000 in temporary cash assistance to 1,575 Katrina families, deciding it would be a “nightmare” to go through the application process for such a small amount of money. (more…)
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If you have watched enough late-night television, you would have at least once seen “Mr. Lesko’s” infomercials on how a person can find millions of dollars of unused government money to fund things like starting your own business to taking those piano lessons you always wanted to take since you were a child. Although there may be some truth to his “snake oil”, much of it is pure bunk, just like the article excerpted above.
So now I guess we are to believe that government on the state level is exercising some sort of restraint when the federal govenment is handing out free money for them to use for Katrina victims on the gounds that it is too much red tape? Yeah right.
Anybody that has been around long enough knows that red tape is something government on the state level is something that is in endless supply. I have a few opinions, but I want to look into this a little further when I get a chance. If you have any thoughts, please share.
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