Before we all fly off the handle over this story and turn it into a controversy that it's not, let's just remember: Missourians who don't make a lot of money and rely on public aid do travel out of state. It's probably not uncommon for them to leave the state to visit family or possibly to work, or maybe to look into finding work.
OK, now that we've all acknowledged that and taken a deep breath, holy crap, a lot of Missouri welfare money is spent outside of the state!
Reporter Chris Nagus at KMOV TV 4 in St. Louis did some public-information sleuthing and obtained documentation of where all Missouri EBT dollars are spent and withdrawn from ATMs. In all, he found that $3,521,974 in welfare cash was spent out of state, and $362,682 was withdrawn in other states. Again, nobody is saying this an indication of fraud or a reason to
panic. It's just strange.
Spreadsheet junkies can sort through the raw data here.
The station discovered some eyebrow-raising locales where assistance
recipients were spending their benefits, including Hawaii, Florida,
California and Alaska. A brief rundown
from the station:
In Hawaii, Missouri EBT cardholders spent $2,737 on food inJanuary. During that same time period, there were 6 ATM transactions
totaling $175.
In California, Missouri EBT users purchased $69,672 worth of food and
withdrew $7,818 from ATMs.
In Texas, Missouri EBT users purchased $139,763 worth of food and
withdrew $20,981 from ATMs.
In Florida, Missouri EBT users purchased $84,061 in food and withdrew
$9,737 from ATMs.
In Alaska, Missouri EBT users purchased $1,845 in food and withdrew $465
from ATMs.
Alaska? Really? The Missouri Department of Social Services told KMOV that the
amount of out-of-state transactions is raising concern, and they
audit the federally funded program regularly. Nagus,
really working the welfare beat, reports in another
story that 22 people were prosecuted statewide last year for
welfare fraud. No word on if any recipients were arrested on a beach, though.
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What makes you think they're living better than you? The individual transactions are quite small if you do the math. And the $3,521,974 in what the article calls "welfare cash" was not for cash -- it was used for food stamp purchases. Could you take a vacation and pay for it with food stamps? No.
And the 'vacation state' stuff is very misleading. About a third of the food purchases ($1,104,238.27 worth) took place in (surprise!) Kansas. The amounts quoted in CA and FL etc are comparatively tiny.
Everyone wants to stop any fraud that's happening, but I don't think anyone's getting rich.
Really!! I'm very sick of hearing about people on welfare living better / more full filling lives than the people paying into the pool. I couldn't afford to go to the coast and spend the winter, I'm guessing no one went to the coast for work since the unemployment rate is even higher out there. Not only do we fund their vacations but they are spending OUR money in other states thus hurting OUR economy even further!!!
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