Help needed
We understand the need for restrained and careful government spending. Our enormous federal deficit threatens to alter our way of life — even destroy it. Our state likewise has amassed debt that is siphoning revenue and forcing funding cuts that are shortchanging all sorts of programs affecting millions of men, women and children.
So we get it. We really do.
That said, Gov. Corbett has gone too far with his proposal to completely eliminate the General Assistance program, and slash funding for GA-related Medical Assistance.
If you’re not aware, General Assistance is what’s known in government-speak as a “last-resort” program. What it provides isn’t much — just $205 a month — for the most vulnerable among us: disabled or sick adults without children; women escaping domestic violence; adults caring for someone who is sick or disabled; adults in alcohol or drug rehab programs; and children living with an unrelated adult. What they all share is a lack of income and support. For them, there is no other safety net.
General Assistance cash keeps them going. Often it is used to rent a room, for a bus ticket to get to needed appointments, or to purchase food, clothing and other staples. But the vast majority of recipients are individuals with physical or mental disabilities — and sometimes both — who use the money to tide them over while they await assistance through the federal SSI program. Once approved, SSI will reimburse the state.
Often General Assistance is a bridge, a relatively inexpensive bridge that keeps people out of homeless shelters and from burdening communities and taxpayers in other ways. Indeed, “GA is far cheaper than the alternative costs Pennsylvania faces if people are left destitute,” PA CARES FOR ALL explains in a reasoned letter to state lawmakers. “These costs include homeless shelters ($1,050 a month), foster care ($600-$1,800 a month), incarceration ($2,750 a month), and state psychiatric hospitals ($20,584 a month.)” Compare that to the $250 a month a GA recipient costs the state. That’s $2,460 if a year’s worth of assistance is needed.
Which is why it makes no financial sense to gut the program, not to mention the many humanitarian reasons to keep GA funded. And we’re not talking about a huge some of money. The program costs taxpayers just $150 million a year and helps some 68,000 Pennsylvanians. That’s not a heavy tab, not compared to the cost of supporting these folks in other ways. The reality is they aren’t going to go away if the state turns off the spigot. Desperate folks in need of help will still be among us — only they’ll be more desperate and have less hope.
We can’t — and shouldn’t — just turn our backs.
Bucks County Courier Times