Brownback Signs Tough Welfare Reform Law

Kansas Govenor Sam Brownback sign one of the nation’s strictest welfare laws into place Thursday.
The measure limits the amount a welfare recipients can get from an ATM machine, restricts where welfare fund can be spent and hold some recipients responsible for the actions of others.
Brownback has long pushed the concept of work over welfare.
“That’s where the real benefit is, it’s getting people off of public assistance and back into the market place and gaining the dignity and far more income there than the pittance of the government,” he said as he signed the bill.
Among its elements was a $25 limitation on the use of a welfare cash card at an ATM.
The executive Director of the United services of Johnson County, Karen Wulfkuhle worries of the impact on many poor families who do not have checking accounts and often pay bills like rent or utilities with cash or money orders.
“And to be able to make all of the payment they need to make over the course of a month with that limitation could be a hardship for those families,” she said.
The new legislation restricts what welfare can buy with their cards.
Those items include alcohol, tobacco products college and pro sports tickets and some other forms of entertainment, including sexual oriented businesses.
The cards may not be used in other stores liked jewelry stories; massage parlors, nail shops casinos, liquor stores and lingerie shops.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Kansas is the 24th state to place state restrictions on the federal benefits from the That Assistance to needy Families (TANF) program.
Many, however, think the Kansas restrictions may be some of the strictest in the land.