Congratulations to the high school graduates of the Class of 2013! Rainy weather could not dampen their spirits as Westfield Vocational Technical High School graduated on Thursday evening and Westfield High School graduated on Friday. To the parents, family members, teachers, and school staff, congratulations as well. You certainly deserve some credit for the accomplishments of your student.
I’d like to thank Westfield resident Andrew Renfro for his service in my district office this past semester as a college Legislative Intern. He did a terrific job helping me to serve you and I wanted to make sure to thank him publicly. I’d also like to introduce my new intern, Westfield High School student Devon Kurtz,who just began volunteering in my office after school a couple days each week. When I was elected as Westfield’s State Representative I made the promise that I would offer internship opportunities in my Boston and District offices to local students and I am proud to say I have lived up to that pledge.
This week the House of Representatives debated and passed a five-year Housing Bond Bill. Members of the Republican caucus did their best, through amendments they offered to the bill, to make sure that anyone applying for public housing in Massachusetts had to be a legal resident of this country, had to give their social security number on their housing application, and couldn’t take housing away from legal residents of this country. Although some Democrats joined us in voting for these amendments, the majority of the Majority Party voted against them and so these common-sense amendments did not pass the House.
There has been much discussion recently about welfare benefits and EBT cards going to people who are either dead or didn’t provide the correct information on their applications or failed to qualify for the benefits but received them anyway. My colleagues and I in the GOP caucus felt it was also important to try to ensure that public housing, which is subsidized by hard-working residents and taxpayers in our state, was also protected and reserved for the truly needy and not those who would abuse the public housing system as the welfare system has been abused. Again, we were thwarted for some incomprehensible reason by the Democrat members of the House.
In fact, this week I joined House Republican Leader Brad Jones, Jr. (R-North Reading), Senate Republican Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester), and a bi-partisan group of House and Senate legislators in submitting a letter to the six members of the Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Conference Committee, asking them to strike out the five letter word in the House engrossed version of the state budget which stands between the Commonwealth and real, true, and meaningful welfare reforms: STUDY.
The letter to the Conference Committee comes on the heels of an explosive report by State Auditor Suzanne Bump, in which it was revealed that millions of dollars was spent on the distribution of taxpayer funded welfare benefits to deceased recipients and duplicate dependents. I wrote about that in my column last week entitled “No Mas.”
Garnering the support of legislators from both Chambers, the letter respectfully requests that “that the Conference Committee cast aside political gamesmanship in exchange for the progress needed to ensure, once and for all, that Massachusetts’ welfare benefits are reserved for those who are truly eligible and in need of our assistance.”
“Members of the Fiscal Year Budget Conference Committee have two options,” said Representative Brad Jones. “They can either choose to remove two unnecessary welfare reform studies from the state budget, thus protecting the Commonwealth’s hardworking taxpayers and ensuring welfare benefits are reserved for the state’s neediest residents, or they can further delay substantive and comprehensive reform to the state’s EBT system by choosing to further study this issue. The ball is in their court.”
Every one of the targeted reforms we legislators would like to see included in the final version of the state budget are, I believe, common sense reforms, and include:
1) The expedited establishment and integration of EOHHS’ Integrated Eligibility System (IES) with the Department of Transitional Assistance
2) The requirement that the IES cross-check Social Security Numbers (SSNs), at the point of application, with a minimum of 9 specific state and federal databases and 20 additional optional databases, to the extent that they are available
3) The prohibition of the use of numerical identifiers as placeholders for SSNs for periods in excess of 3 months
4) The immediate phase-in of photo ID on EBT cards for cardholders over the age of 18, beginning 6 months following the passage of the bill
5) The prohibition of out of state EBT card use except in states contiguous to Massachusetts
6) The increase of the potential fines on retailers who violate EBT prohibitions, as recommended by the most recent Cashless Commission
7) The prohibition of the use of self-declarations as verification of applicant eligibility;
8) The phase-in of the implementation of an online payment system for rent and utility payments that would provide recipients with more flexibility to pay bills and an added resource to budget benefits, while providing the Commonwealth with greater oversight over the use of cash assistance.
The three Representatives and three Senators on the Conference Committee began their deliberations on the FY14 state budget on Thursday. The new fiscal year begins July 1. We have to get the budget to the Governor by then.
Just a reminder and invitation for you to join me next Friday, June 14, Flag Day, in a standout at the Great River Bridge parks to honor our flag and our country. It goes from 4-6 p.m. Bring your American flag, your camera, your kids, your friends, and your family. See you then, rain or shine!
Have a great week.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not the staff, editor, or publisher of the Westfield News.
Representative Don Humason and his Chief of Staff Maura Cassin McCarthy may be reached at their Westfield District Office, 64 Noble Street, Westfield, MA 01085, (413) 568-1366.
Representative Don Humason may be reached at his Boston office, State House Room 542, Boston, MA 02133, (617) 722-2803.
Email address: [email protected]
Website: www.DonHumason.org
