Fuel to the fire.
In the four months that Florida’s law was in place, the state drug tested 4,086 TANF applicants. A mere 108 individuals tested positive. To put it another way, only 2.6 percent of applicants tested positive for illegal drugs — a rate more than three times lower than the 8.13 percent of all Floridians, age 12 and up, estimated by the federal government to use illegaldrugs. Now might be a good time to remind folks that in the debate over the bill, Gov. Rick Scott argued that this law was necessary because, he said, welfare recipients used drugs at a higher rate than the general population.
The utter absurdity of this law is magnified when you realize how much it cost the state of Florida to run this program. The data released today shows that Florida spent $118,140 reimbursing the overwhelming number of Florida TANF applicants — 3,938 to be exact — who tested negative for drugs. That is far more than any money saved by the program, at a net cost to the State of over $45,000. And that’s only part of the cost to the state to run this program. There are also the administrative costs, staff costs, and, of course, the litigation costs. Furthermore, the testing program didn’t deter individuals from applying for help — an internal document about TANF caseloads revealed that, at least from July through September, the policy did not lead to fewer cases.
Spending more tax payer money to stop very few people from using government money to help the local economy. Brilliant.
I’m not completely wrong, you’re not realizing what you’re comparing. It’s not a tax return on a regular salary. It’s a tax return on a money given to you by the government to begin with.
What PJB is saying is that once you get paid out ~$4,000 by the government for welfare (an amount determined by the amount of kids you have to begin with) and you file the taxes it will give you ~$4000 again as a tax return. Giving you $8000 for the year.
As the only person truly familiar with taxes here Tracey should be able to verify or deny that claim.