States fear strain as feds curb spending, By Ronald J. Hansen, June 21, 2010, Arizona Republic: “With Congress increasingly reluctant to add to the nation’s debt, financial help is hard to find for state governments and individual casualties of the recession. Last week, the Senate rejected a bill that would have extended stimulus provisions to help the unemployed. Several attempts to extend higher Medicaid assistance have failed, too, leaving dozens of states, including Arizona, with looming budget holes that collectively total about $24 billion. Many still expect that the Medicaid money will materialize, if only because many states have expected the help for months and built it into budgets that begin in July. In Arizona, the federal money would mean an extra $394 million to help defray the medical costs of about 310,000 poor adults. Extending help for the unemployed would cost $40 billion nationwide. Without a share of that money in Arizona, weekly unemployment checks that are already among the smallest in the nation are $25 lower, and fewer people qualify for help at all. The push for austerity comes as Congress tries to balance the needs of the social safety net against the costs of soaring debt…”
States struggle to balance budgets after Congress refuses to offer more stimulus money, By Beth Fouhy (AP), June 28, 2010, Grand Forks Herald: “For at least 30 cash-strapped states counting on federal stimulus money, the news was a stunning blow: A deficit-weary Congress had rejected billions in additional aid, forcing lawmakers into a mad scramble to balance their budgets. Now, with a new fiscal year just days away in most states, many governors are proposing to make up for the shortfall with tax increases, cuts in essential services and potential layoffs of thousands of public employees. ‘I support restraining federal spending, but cutting the only funding designed to help states maintain the very safety-net programs Congress mandates us to preserve will have devastating consequences,’ California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a letter to his state’s congressional delegation. California faces a whopping $19 billion deficit _ more than 20 percent of the state’s total budget _ despite deep cuts that have already been made to many programs. Its new fiscal year begins July 1, and a budget deal there is nowhere in sight…”
Budget project issues ‘Making Ends Meet’ report, By Tom Abate, June 25, 2010, San Francisco Chronicle: “A single adult must earn nearly $32,000 to live in San Francisco, while two working parents with two young children must take in a little more than $84,000 to get by, according to an analysis released Thursday by a public policy group in Sacramento. The California Budget Project report, titled ‘Making Ends Meet,’ estimates the cost of supporting a family of from one person to four people in each of the state’s 58 counties. The study uses federal and state figures to average a range of expenses including housing, utilities, food, transportation, health care, taxes, clothing, laundry services, reading materials and bath products such as toothpaste. ‘We don’t assume any cable TV or smart phone expenses,’ said budget project director Jean Ross, noting that the phone category supposes a $23 a month landline…”
Many S.J. families struggling, By Jennifer Torres, June 25, 2010, Stockton Record: “More than half of local families – including those whose earnings place them well into middle-income levels – could be struggling to maintain even a modest standard of living (no vacations, no college savings, no home ownership), according to a new analysis that suggests other measures of poverty fail to consider what it really takes to support a family in the state. The California Budget Project, a nonprofit research organization, on Thursday released an update to its periodic report, ‘Making Ends Meet: How much Does it Cost To Raise a Family in California?’ The report offers county-by-county estimates of the child care, transportation, health care, housing and other costs that confront families – and that, in many cases, strain monthly wages. In San Joaquin County, according to the report, a family of four, with two working parents, would need to bring in nearly $5,800 a month, or close to $70,000 annually, to cover basic bills without public assistance…”
Texas hit with fine for food stamp errors, By Corrie MacLaggan, June 28, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “Federal officials have fined Texas $3.96 million for errors in issuing food stamp benefits, according to a letter to House Speaker Joe Straus. The penalty is for a high rate of overpayments or underpayments two years in a row, said the letter from U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon. Among the four states hit with penalties, Texas was fined the most. Also fined were Indiana ($1.2 million), Maryland ($742,238) and Iowa ($205,730), federal officials said. Texas plans to appeal, said Geoff Wool, a spokesman for the state Health and Human Services Commission. He said the commission learned of the fine on Friday. Wool said Texas’ appeal will focus on the fact that the number of food stamp recipients in Texas spiked after Hurricane Ike in 2008, increasing 26 percent in the year that followed…”
U.S. fines Texas $4 million for botching food-stamp claims, By Robert t. Garrett, June 29, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Federal food stamp officials have fined Texas nearly $4 million for making too many errors in calculating people’s monthly benefits. U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon notified state officials late last week, offering to waive half of the $3.96 million fine if Texas would use the money to improve administration of the program. But Texas Health and Human Services Commission spokesman Geoff Wool said Monday that the state will appeal. A penalty is unfair because hurricanes and the recession overwhelmed the state workers who process food stamp requests, Wool said. Texas either overpaid or underpaid on food stamp benefits 6.9 percent of the time in fiscal 2009, according to the federal Food and Nutrition Service. In Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth, the most error-prone regions, the state miscalculated benefits more than 10 percent of the time. Among all states, only Indiana and Maryland performed more poorly. Both had payment error rates of just over 7.1 percent last year, while the national rate was 4.36 percent, ‘the lowest rate in the history of the program,’ the service proclaimed…”
