*Cue* The Pretenders....Way to go Ohio....

[Wheezer]

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/liv...welfare-extra-100.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

cigarettes & booze for everyone!!!!!

Ohio families relying on cash assistance will get an extra $100 in their June welfare checks.

Gov. Ted Strickland ordered the one-time payment to each of the 103,000 families now relying on the safety-net program to meet their basic needs.

"Ohio is committed to ensuring the improved well-being of families and children in these trying times," Strickland wrote in an executive order Thursday to authorize the payments.

With the state unemployment rate at 10.9 percent, the governor noted that the challenges facing families are great, particularly as many begin to exhaust their unemployment benefits.

The state is using $8.4million in federal stimulus money and $2million in state funds to cover the one-time payments. Federal regulations require states to provide a 20 percent match.

The state funds will come from money budgeted but not spent by the Department of Job and Family Services, which oversees Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and other assistance programs, said Strickland spokeswoman Amanda Wurst.

Advocates for the poor have long sought additional help for Ohio's poorest families.

"We see the need every day," said Philip E. Cole, executive director of the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies, in a news release.

"These families exist on such slim margins; this really will make a difference to them."

Families eligible for cash assistance have incomes about half of the federal poverty level - $9,155 a year for a family of three - and get about $434 a month in benefits.

The last increase the families received was a cost-of-living adjustment on Jan. 1, 2009.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

God am I sad to say I live in this shit hole.

 

[Fear No Evil]

 

[Zargon]

ugh

 

[jackschmittusa]

Pretty cynical attitude Wheezer.

Maybe you think differently if you were looking for a job in Ohio. A couple of years ago, the Akron paper had several pages of help wanted ads every day. For quite a while now, it is usually a column and a half at best. Businesses closing, cutting back and laying people off is a regular occurrence around here. We've even had a big shopping mall fold up. Companies are closing or severely modifying pension plans.

Fact is though, it doesn't matter if they use the hundred bucks to buy beer to cry in. It will all go back into the economy immediately.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Instead of cash - how about a voucher for utilities or food.

 

[TheBDB]

Man I am jealous. I wish I could switch places with them!

 

[Wheezer]

Instead of cash - how about a voucher for utilities or food.

#1 we are talking about government...thier way to solve a problem?...Throw more money at it!!!

#2 Because Ted Strickland is a fucking idiot. (VERY close to #1)

 

[Schadenfroh]

Ahh, purchasing votes I see.

I sometimes wish that our constitution had a "separation of charity and state" clause.

 

[Double Trouble]

Sad to say that these are the tools that run the state I live in. This kind of stupidity seems to be spreading. I'm not surprised to see the morons in CA government do this kind of stuff, but usually that kind of stupidity stays there. States like OH have their own (other) kinds of stupidity, they should stick to those instead of adopting new ones