As first reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the State of Wisconsin has taken over administering food stamp, child care and medical assistance programs from Milwaukee County:
The state will strip Milwaukee County of its role in administering food stamp, child care and medical assistance programs over unfair benefit denials to poor people, state Health Services Secretary Karen Timberlake announced today.
“Milwaukee County has demonstrated a sustained inability to successfully provide services to its (poor) customers,” Timberlake said in a letter to County Executive Scott Walker.
Among Milwaukee County’s failures in administering the food stamp, child care, and medical assistance programs:
- Answering only 5% of the hundreds of thousands of phone calls to the county’s public assistance call center every month.
- Failing to process 30% of its benefit applications within the required seven days.
- 60% of county decisions to deny food or health care benefits were overturned within two months.
County Supervisor Peggy West was quick to rush to Milwaukee County’s defense, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “I wish they would have been more supportive and given us the funding” needed to manage the programs better, West said. “I debate the fact it actually has to do with our performance and would argue it has more to do with political posturing.” West also said it appeared Doyle was trying to create a 2010 campaign issue against Walker, who is expected to mount a Republican challenge to Doyle. I’ve emailed Supervisor West to see if she really thinks the County has done a good job administering its aid programs, as her statement seems to indicate, because it seems curious that a County Supervisor would say that answering only 5% of calls to the county’s public assistance call center is a job well done.
Ultimately, blame for the failure of Milwaukee County to properly administer its public assistance programs should fall squarely at the feet of County Executive Scott Walker. As the County Executive, it’s Walker’s job to make sure the County is efficiently (and properly) doing its job, and in that respect he’s failed miserably. If Walker can’t be trusted to run Milwaukee County properly, how can he possibly be counted on to lead the state if elected governor?
Or as fellow blogger Michael Mathias asked, “Who’s going to be forced to take over these programs if Walker becomes governor? Minnesota?”
Xoff over at Uppity Wisconsin has more, as does capper.
Nothing short of criminal behavior that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Is there a legal category labeled premeditated neglect?