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<DIV>Add the legislature to the entities with no shame. They set the bar
to ensure most poor Idaho families would not qualify. While the Department
wrote the regs, they had to be approved by the legislature, and no doubt that’s
what the legislature wanted. Additionally, it is a shame that state
workers had to be paid from monies directed to help the poor. While state
employees (not heads of government, they got hefty raises) have been neglected
by the legislature, it’s a pity things were so bad they even considered using
these funds for salary increases. </DIV>
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<DIV>SH</DIV>
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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=v2020@ssl1.fastmail.fm
href="mailto:v2020@ssl1.fastmail.fm">Saundra Lund</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, April 02, 2014 2:25 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">Vision 2020</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] Fwd: State auditors: Idaho misspent some
welfare funds</DIV></DIV></DIV>
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style='FONT-SIZE: small; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri"; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000000; FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline'>
<DIV>They have absolutely no shame whatsoever.<BR></DIV>
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<DIV><A
href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/04/02/3113866/state-auditors-idaho-misspent.html?sp=/99/101/">http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/04/02/3113866/state-auditors-idaho-misspent.html?sp=/99/101/</A><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR> </DIV>
<H1><SPAN>State auditors: Idaho misspent some welfare funds</SPAN><BR></H1>
<P>By REBECCA BOONE<BR></P>
<P><SPAN>Associated Press</SPAN><BR>
<DIV><SPAN></SPAN><SPAN>April 2, 2014</SPAN> <SPAN>Updated 1 hour
ago</SPAN> <BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR> </DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN>BOISE, Idaho</SPAN> — <B>State auditors say the Idaho Department of
Health and Welfare misspent $2.5 million in federal welfare funding on
salaries instead of using it to help pay for food, housing and other benefits
provided to Idaho's poorest residents.</B><BR></DIV>
<P>But department officials say the money was used properly to help keep
extremely low-income children out of foster care.<BR></P>
<P>The finding by the Legislative Services Office's Audits Division was part
of the state's annual audit of how federal cash is used by Idaho
agencies.<BR></P>
<P>The $2.5 million used for salaries and other non-assistance costs in 2013
was left over from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families budget from
2008. In the report released Wednesday, the auditors said federal rules
required that any carry-over funds be spent directly on benefits like cash or
vouchers for food, housing, utilities or other basic needs for low-income
Idaho families.<BR></P>
<P>The Department of Health and Welfare disagrees with the auditors, saying
that the federal rule changed on Oct. 1, 2008 — the start of fiscal year 2009
— to allow unobligated balances to be spent on any benefit or service provided
under the program, so the money was used appropriately. But the auditors noted
that the unused balance was from fiscal year 2008, and so they maintain the
rule change for 2009 couldn't be retroactively applied.<BR></P>
<P>Very few families qualify for the program, Idaho Department of Health and
Welfare spokesman Tom Shanahan said. "No one who qualified for the assistance
has been denied," Shanahan said.<BR></P>
<P>In Idaho, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families money is typically used to
provide a $309-per-month cash payment given to families with incomes below 32
percent of the federal poverty level. That means that they must have a monthly
income of less than $309, Shanahan said, and any monthly income they receive
is subtracted from the $309 payment.<BR></P>
<P>The goal of the program is to keep families together, Shanahan said, and to
help parents find work. To that end, the program also provides funds for
things like appropriate clothing for job interviews or transportation to a
workplace.<BR></P>
<P>The federal rule change allowed states to also use the money to help keep
children from those extremely poor families stay with relatives instead of
putting them in foster care when their parents are unable to care for them,
Shanahan said. Idaho currently averages about 2,900 people on the program a
month, and 80 percent of them were children in "kinship care," he said. The
kinship care money is used to help cover the living costs of a child staying
with a relative if the relative wouldn't otherwise be able to pay for the
child's care.<BR></P>
<P>"Prior to 2008, TANF funds could only be used for cash assistance or
work-support activities. In other words, services to get people in families
working," Shanahan said. "We covered all the costs that we could cover, and we
didn't deny anyone who qualified."<BR></P>
<P>That left a $2.5 million balance that had to be spent within five years, he
said. When the rules changed, the department decided to use that money to help
pay social workers for the time they spent helping children in the program
stay with extended family members when their parents were sent to jail or
otherwise deemed unable to care for them.<BR></P>
<P>The $309-per-month payment is set by state law, Shanahan said, so the
leftover funds couldn't be used to boost payments to qualified families or
otherwise expand the program.<BR></P>
<P>April Renfro, the manager of the Legislative Audits Division, said her
office believes the leftover money could only be spent on direct benefits
under the rules in place when the money was received by the state. The
division audits the spending based on federal requirements supplied by the
federal Office of Management and Budget, she said. <BR>
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