Scott Walker’s Record on Safety Net & Social Services

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday signed new limits on welfare programs into law, committing state and federal taxpayers to nearly $80 million in spending to draw more people into the labor force. “Our … welfare reform bills ensure help to those who truly need it, while providing the training and assistance they need to re-enter the workforce and regain independence,” Walker said in a statement… The Republican governor on Tuesday signed nine pieces of legislation at stops in Wausau, River Falls and Milwaukee. Several of the measures deal with the joint state and federal food stamp program known as FoodShare. One piece of legislation would require parents with children between the ages of 6 and 18 to work or get job training or lose FoodShare benefits after three months. Starting in April 2015, Walker and GOP lawmakers had already applied this work requirement to able-bodied adults without children…The requirements signed by Walker on Tuesday will cost an estimated $79.7 million in state and federal money when fully implemented.

The bulk of Gov. Scott Walker’s welfare overhaul package, including increasing work requirements for food stamp recipients and imposing them on parents for the first time, won final legislative approval on Tuesday.

As part of a politically motivated special session call, Gov. Scott Walker is proposing legislation requiring residents of public housing to submit to drug testing. One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross today called on Walker, and any other adults living with him in the taxpayer funded governor’s mansion, to also submit to drug tests.

Bills to toughen Wisconsin’s welfare requirements offered by Gov. Scott Walker are estimated to cost more than $90 million a year. The proposals include increasing work requirements for able-bodied adults on food stamps and expanding the requirement for the first time to parents.

The state legislature today is holding a public hearing on the hastily drafted bills that are the subject of a politically motivated special session called by Gov. Scott Walker.

Fresh off an historic electoral defeat in a state Senate race, Wisconsin Republicans led by Gov. Scott Walker announced a special session of the legislature devoted to renewed attacks on Wisconsin families struggling to get by.

Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday called on the Wisconsin Legislature to pass a sweeping welfare overhaul package with some of the toughest requirements in the country, including forcing parents on food stamps with school-aged children to work or be in job training and mandating photo identification for food stamp recipients.

Health coverage under a plan from Gov. Scott Walker that has won support from President Donald Trump’s administration…Walker and his fellow GOP governors in nine other states have sought to impose work and training requirements on the Medicaid program known in Wisconsin as BadgerCare. But to do it they needed the backing of federal officials. Jon Peacock, research director of the advocacy group Kids Forward, said he expected the decision to spark a federal lawsuit from opponents. He said the deal would hurt needy college students and adults caring for elderly parents and would do less to get people working than addressing other problems like a lack of transportation.

Gov. Scott Walker has offered an excuse perhaps even more incredible than the hypocrisy he displayed in pushing a drug testing scheme on Wisconsinites while, as head of the Republican Governors Association (RGA), accepting a major contribution from a marijuana industry trade group. According to Walker, a $25,000 campaign contribution isn’t big enough to buy his support.Madison - Gov. Scott Walker has offered an excuse perhaps even more incredible than the hypocrisy he displayed in pushing a drug testing scheme on Wisconsinites while, as head of the Republican Governors Association (RGA), accepting a major contribution from a marijuana industry trade group. According to Walker, a $25,000 campaign contribution isn’t big enough to buy his support.

Scott Walker has always been a politician willing to do or say anything to advance his own political ambitions. But newly uncovered information that Walker, as head of the Republican Governor’s Association, accepted a major contribution from a marijuana industry trade group this year at the same time he was lobbying for authority to require drug testing as a condition of receiving public assistance benefits reaches new heights of political hypocrisy.

A project created by a team of six elementary school students was in the spotlight Tuesday morning when Gov. Scott Walker visited the Sevastopol School District to honor Sharing is Caring. The Sharing is Caring project, a clothes closet for low-income students, was created by Destination Imagination team members Nicole Olson, Danica Schultz, Oliver Matthews, Jordyn Welch, Eve Andreae and Micai Welch with the help of their coaches, Sarah Olson, a community member, and the assistant coach, Megan Kasten, a Sevastopol senior.

The state Legislature’s budget-writing committee voted on Thursday to require some Wisconsin residents using food stamps and receiving public health care to be tested for drug use and to meet work requirements in exchange for benefits.The Joint Finance Committee, the state’s budget-writing panel, voted 12-4 to approve Walker’s plan that would make Wisconsin the first state in the nation to make drug tests mandatory for Medicaid recipients and would impose tests on adult food stamp recipients without dependent children seeking coverage through the state’s BadgerCare program.

Gov. Scott Walker wants to make Wisconsin the first state in the country to require able-bodied, childless adults applying for Medicaid health benefits to undergo drug screening, a move that could serve as a national model. Walker’s plan, which needs federal approval, comes as he prepares to run for a third term next year. Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled budget committee approved Walker’s proposal on Thursday, a key vote that will clear the way for the full Legislature to pass it later this summer.

Wisconsin is preparing to recast its Medicaid program in ways that no state has ever done, requiring low-income adults to undergo drug screening to qualify for health coverage and setting time limits on assistance unless they work or train for a job. The approach places BadgerCare, as the Wisconsin version of Medicaid is known, at the forefront of a movement by Republican governors and legislatures that is injecting a brand of moralism and individual responsibility into the nation’s largest source of public health insurance.

With the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee set to pass Gov. Scott Walker’s scheme to force adults receiving food stamps to submit to government-forced urine tests, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross released the following statements. Ross pointed out that in his 24 years as an elected official, Walker has received over $2 million in salary, as well as health care for he and his entire family for decades, and since 2011 a mansion, security and numerous amenities and perks, all paid for by taxpayers.

Wisconsin’s Republican governor, Scott Walker, believes that citizens of his state who use public services should have to submit to drug testing. And anyone who refuses to be tested should be turned away. Walker doesn’t want to drug test every single citizen using every single public service. Can you imagine the revolt that would cause?

An Illinois sheriff blasted Wisconsin officials Monday for not picking up a runaway Dane County foster child arrested in Chicago. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Sheriff Thomas Dart of Illinois’ Cook County wrote a letter to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker telling him Illinois welfare agencies had to step in after Wisconsin agencies didn’t. According to the letter: Officers found the 17-year-old girl last week in a car on Chicago’s west side with 420 grams of heroin and four grams of marijuana. After determining the teen had run away from a Dane County foster home, they contacted the girl’s foster mother, who refused to pick her up but referred them to the Juvenile Reception Center in Madison. Officials there also refused to pick her up but referred them to the Dane County Department of Human Services. No one there would pick her up either. Dart also noted in the letter that it didn’t appear anybody had reported the girl missing until officers began making calls. “When a child goes on the run, reports must be filed,” he said. “When a foster mother receives a call, she should act and agencies whose mission it is to help and care for vulnerable children must be held accountable for doing so.” Walker spokesman Tom Evenson says the governor’s staff has directed the Department of Children and Families to look into the matter.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is proposing changes to the state’s Medicaid program, also known as BadgerCare, that would would require drug testing and treatment for some applicants. An official in the Walker administration said the measure aims to help individuals transition to work. During a Monday media call sponsored by Citizen Action of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, public health experts criticized Walker’s plan, saying it won’t reduce the burden on taxpayers or set up effective support for drug users. “It may be very good politics for a governor’s race, but that’s mostly what it is. It’s horrendous public policy,” said Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin’s motto is “forward.” So it is no surprise that the Badger State is, once again, leading the way with some of the most bold welfare reforms in country. Governed by a philosophy that welfare ought to be temporary and government’s role should be to move people from dependency to work, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s latest initiative is laying the foundation for what may be the second era of welfare transformation. The first era, of course, began with another reform-minded governor from Wisconsin. After 25 years of seeing federal expenditures on welfare explode tenfold, Gov. Tommy Thompson in 1995 championed “workfare.” His initiative, “Wisconsin Works,” put lifetime caps on welfare benefits and helped to move those on public assistance to stable employment. In Milwaukee, Thompson’s reforms resulted in a 32 percent reduction in welfare caseloads.

Now that House Republicans have squandered their shot at reordering Medicaid, governors who want conservative changes in the health program for ­low-income Americans must get special permission from the Trump administration. Near the front of the line is Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican who not only supports work requirements and premium payments but also a new additional condition: to make applicants undergo a drug test if they’re suspected of substance abuse. If Walker gets his way, Wisconsin would be the first state in the country with mandatory drug screening for Medicaid enrollees. The governor plans to release his proposal in mid-April and submit it to the Department of Health and Human Services by the end of May.

Hundreds more prisoners could get treatment for drug abuse and an early release from prison if successful, under Gov. Scott Walker’s budget bill. The proposal applies only to those who have been singled out for the long-standing program by a judge at their sentencing. But right now there are not enough resources to handle all those prisoners. The GOP governor’s proposal would provide more treatment and allow more of the inmates already waiting in line for the program to enter and complete it. Walker made his name as a tough-on-crime lawmaker and one of his first acts as governor in 2011 was to repeal an expansion of the Earned Release Program approved by his Democratic predecessor, Jim Doyle, who sought to make more prisoners eligible for early release.

After several years without any substantive increases in the reimbursement rate, Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed 2017-19 state budget offers a glimmer of hope for a struggling industry. The budget calls for a reimbursement rate increase totaling $51.5 million over two years to support the direct care workforce and increased resident acuity in nursing homes, said Department of Health Services spokeswoman Elizabeth Goodsitt. That’s about 56 percent of what WHCA and other advocacy groups had called for. “The governor’s budget proposal is an important step in the right direction in addressing this underfunding of skilled nursing facilities,” Vander Meer said, adding that the industry’s hope is that legislators and members of the Legislature’s powerful Joint Finance Committee retain the provision in the final budget.

Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget offers a series of initiatives to address homelessness in the state, with advocates applauding the moves and calling on the state to do more.Among other things, the budget would help homeless individuals prepare for jobs; test a program to use housing vouchers for the chronically homeless; expand a program to help mentally ill inmates after they’re released from prison; allow the use of state grants to support homelessness prevention and immediate, permanent housing followed by a tailored set of assistance known as “rapid rehousing”; and create a homeless services coordinator to seek a federal waiver allowing the state to use Medicaid for case management services and housing transition. “We’re very pleased,” said Joseph Volk, executive director of the Wisconsin Coalition Against Homelessness. “This is the first time in 25 years there’s been anything in the state budget regarding homelessness and increased resources. This is a huge step forward.”

A bright budget outlook could mean millions of more dollars sent from the state to county governments to provide child welfare services and to fix their roads, Gov. Scott Walker told county officials on Tuesday. Walker, a day before he plans to unveil his full 2017-19 spending plan, told members of the Wisconsin Counties Association that one “major ask” he plans to fulfill for counties is to propose state funding to eliminate waiting lists for children with disabilities needing long-term care from counties. The budget will provide $39 million over two years to eliminate the waiting lists for 2,200 children with disabilities. As of 2013, the 10 counties with the largest waiting lists were delaying care for nearly 1,400 children, according to the Wisconsin Board for People With Developmental Disabilities.

A proposed work requirement for parents on food stamps would affect nearly 100,000 recipients, new data show. Gov. Scott Walker will propose in his 2017-19 state budget, set to be released on Wednesday, that parents with children over the age of 6 work or seek work for at least 80 hours per month to continue to receive FoodShare benefits. The number of FoodShare recipients who have children in that age range is 98,626, or 14 percent of the total number of recipients as of December 2016, according to data obtained from the Department of Health Services through the state’s open records law.

Gov. Scott Walker wants parents who receive food stamps to work at least 80 hours per month to continue to receive full benefits.Walker made the announcement Monday in appearances around the state promoting changes dubbed “Wisconsin Works for Everyone” that he plans to make to the state’s welfare programs…David Lee, executive director of Feeding Wisconsin, an organization that advocates on behalf of food shelters and oversees a network of pantries in the state, said proposing to reduce benefits for adults in a family is tantamount to reducing benefits for the entire family.

About 21,000 Wisconsin residents using food stamps have gained employment through a state program designed to connect recipients with jobs, Gov. Scott Walker announced during his annual State of the State address Tuesday. That ‘s the number of FoodShare recipients who have gotten jobs through the state program that was created when lawmakers reinstated a requirement that able-bodied adults without children at home be employed in order to keep FoodShare benefits. But nearly two years after the work requirement went into effect, in April 2015, about 64,000 FoodShare recipients also have lost benefits after receiving three months of food stamps and not looking for nor gaining employment, according to Department of Health Services data released Tuesday.

More than 120,000 fewer Wisconsin residents are using food stamps than two years ago, and up to $197 million less will be spent on food stamps this year than what was spent in 2014. Gov. Scott Walker ‘s administration attributes much of the drop to an improving economy recovering from the Great Recession of 2008. But food pantries aren’t seeing a similar decline in the number of people seeking meals and groceries, their administrators say. In fact, they say demand is up in some areas as lawmakers have scaled back the value of food stamps and as recipients are kicked out of the state’s FoodShare food stamp program for not actively seeking work — a new state requirement for able-bodied food stamp recipients. “Poor people haven’t gained employment, they have simply been ‘disappeared’ from our view by these statistics,” said Sherrie Tussler, executive director of the Hunger Task Force, a supplier of food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters with emergency food.

Gov. Scott Walker has approved a rule implementing drug screening requirements for unemployment benefits. The rule implements provisions in the state budget. Under the rule, those who fail an employer drug test or refuse to take one can be denied unemployment benefits. Those who fail would get taxpayer-funded treatment. Walker announced the new rule Wednesday, saying it brings the state one step closer to moving residents from government dependence to independence.

Taxpayers have spent $60 million on new work requirements that have kicked three times as many Wisconsinites off of food benefits than those who found jobs. One year after the state began forcing people to work or actively look for jobs in order to remain on the FoodShare assistance program, a report released Wednesday showed that 11,971 people had found jobs. Meanwhile, 41,149 people lost benefits after not meeting the requirement. Gov. Scott Walker promoted the program as a success on Wednesday, April 20 at a J.C. Penney customer call center in Wauwatosa. The company has hired 50 workers from the state’s Milwaukee County job placement contractor, Walker said. “We’re empowering people to live their own lives and control their own destinies from the dignity that really comes from work,” Walker told reporters. Walker said a top goal of the program was reducing the cost of FoodShare for taxpayers… “This program and the other programs like it around the state help provide great individuals with great work ethic, with great training, to be able to come into the workforce and fill those positions,” the governor said.

In May of this year, Governor Scott Walker proposed a bill requiring that anyone applying for public assistance be required to complete a screening questionnaire for illegal drug use. Those deemed at risk would be drug tested before benefits could be awarded; a positive drug test would have resulted in denial of benefits and referral to a free treatment program paid for by the state. This bill was included in the proposed 2015-2017 state budget.

“Some recipients of public benefits, including Medicaid, unemployment and food stamps, would be required to undergo drug testing, under budget proposal announced Thursday by Gov. Scott Walker. The governor rolled out his “workforce readiness plan” Thursday ahead of the scheduled unveiling of his 2015-17 state budget proposal on Feb. 3. The proposals announced Thursday are aimed at providing more workers for “high-need” fields such as manufacturing, Walker said. Drug testing could affect tens of thousands of Wisconsinites receiving benefits; those failing drug tests would be offered free drug treatment and job training, the governor said...Drug testing the unemployed would apply only for people “for whom suitable work is only available in certain occupations,” Walker spokeswoman Laurel Patrick said. Information on which jobs or job seekers would be subject to drug testing was not immediately available. About 40,000 people currently receive unemployment benefits. The budget also will include language seeking permission from the federal government to test all “able-bodied” adults without dependents on FoodShare, as well as all childless adults on Medicaid. Some broad-based programs in other states that tested all recipients have been halted after courts found them unconstitutional.

 After signing into law drastic funding cuts to an Alcohol and Other Drug Addiction (AODA) program targeting youths, Gov. Scott Walker is now proposing mandatory drug testing for Wisconsinites as a condition of receiving unemployment benefits or participating in the FoodShare program. One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross denounced the shortsighted and hypocritical actions of Gov. Walker on the issue.

Walker went on to say, however, that the “biggest, boldest reform” in the budget was new work requirements for people on food stamps. Able-bodied adults must spend at least 20 hours a week working or getting trained for a job, or they will be limited to three months of benefits over three years. Walker described this as a kindness. “We say it’s time to get the training, and the access to training so that when a job becomes available, you are ready to get in the game,” he said.

Here's the challenge: The state cut funding to operate economic support services by 16.8 percent, while at the same time requiring counties to contribute the same amount to services that they did in 2009. In his budget repair bill, Gov. Scott Walker proposed taking all of those duties away from counties. Medical Assistance, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program -- formerly referred to as food stamps -- BadgerCare and subsidized childcare, consolidating them at the state level, and providing service through a call-center model. A private company, not state workers, would oversee programs. Gov. Scott Walker's administration estimated the proposal would save $48 million each year and eliminate 270 state positions. Previous efforts to run programs such as BadgerCare out of centralized offices didn't work. The Legislative Audit Bureau gave the state performance in operating BadgerCare a dismal review. So counties offered the state an alternative: Counties would continue to provide the services but they would form income maintenance consortiums. The lead county in each consortium would work with the state, and each county within the consortium would continue to provide face-to-face services for their residents. In addition, each county would provide a call center to answer questions and process change orders for all of the consortium's clients.

When Dennis Smith, Gov. Scott Walker's secretary of the state Department of Health Services (DHS), conducted a public outreach tour to explain how he wanted to cut $467 million from Medicaid programs, he didn't mention how many kids from low-income families would lose their health care coverage. Instead, Smith focused on "fairness," and asked that low-income families pay their "fair share" for their BadgerCare coverage. Smith didn't mention that 29,000 children—plus 34,000 adults—would likely lose their BadgerCare coverage if his "reforms" are implemented. Another 104,000 adults would be required to pay more toward their Medicaid coverage. Smith is asking the federal government for a waiver to implement his reform of Medicaid programs, something the Republican-led Legislature authorized him to do since it failed to fully fund the program in the state budget. If Smith doesn't receive the federal waiver by Dec. 31, the Legislature will allow him to drop more than 53,000 adult BadgerCare recipients from the program in July 2012. Although Smith's plan would reduce state spending by $90 million, it would also mean losing more than $135 million in federal funding for Medicaid, since the federal government pays about 60% of the Medicaid costs. In contrast, kicking 53,000 individuals from the program next year would result in a $60 million reduction in state spending and a loss of $90 million in federal money.

“There will be thousands and thousands of people across Wisconsin to lose their health care coverage,” One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross says. Liberal group One Wisconsin now is blasting the cuts, which include $100 million from Family Care and $54 million from Badger Care Plus, which helps the uninsured pay for health care coverage. “Health care costs rise as people aren’t able to get affordable care when they need it most,” Ross says.

“Attempts by the new Republican administration to largely privatize the state's food assistance program have been all but stopped in their tracks. The controversial plan, first proposed by Gov. Scott Walker in March, would have replaced county-level sites where residents can simultaneously apply for FoodShare and medical assistance with a limited number of centers across the state staffed by private workers. The move would have cost roughly 270 public workers their jobs. "The state right now is not in compliance (with federal law)," said Alan Shannon, a spokesman with the USDA's regional office in Chicago. "It's that simple." Federal guidelines prohibit private, or vendor, staff from deciding an applicant's eligibility for food assistance. Under the guidelines, private workers can only perform non-discretionary tasks, such as scanning documents. On Thursday, Ollice Holden, the Midwest administrator for the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service in Chicago, sent a letter to Dennis Smith, secretary of the state Department of Health Services, telling him to correct the situation.”

Attempts by the new Republican administration to largely privatize the state's food assistance program have been all but stopped in their tracks. The controversial plan, first proposed by Gov. Scott Walker in March, would have replaced county-level sites where residents can simultaneously apply for FoodShare and medical assistance with a limited number of centers across the state staffed by private workers. The move would have cost roughly 270 public workers their jobs…Turns out, USDA officials were never keen on private workers being involved in the administration of the federally funded food assistance program. The federal officials have been warning the state to change its course, or at a minimum refrain from hiring more private employees, since early 2010. ”The state right now is not in compliance (with federal law)," said Alan Shannon, a spokesman with the USDA's regional office in Chicago. "It's that simple."

Wisconsin Senate Republican are expected today to cut $56 million yearly from benefits for newly-unemployed Wisconsin workers just as figures show Wisconsin’s unemployment rate under Gov. Scott Walker has jumped higher than most states in the past two months. This vote comes after it was revealed Gov. Walker spent $500,000 for private legal counsel to the firm where Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus is partner.

On May 11, 2011, Walker signed into law reckless health care cutbacks that would allow the state to cut up to 70,000 from Wisconsin health care programs, and could result in deep reductions in benefits for children and seniors. (January 2011 Special Session Assembly Bill 11; Assembly Roll Call; Senate Roll Call)

“Milwaukee County under spent its budget for running the Wisconsin Shares child-care program by more than $4.3 million since 2004 -- money that could have gone toward greater fraud prevention, state officials said. The county was authorized to spend $8 million or more annually to run the program, under contracts with the state that included oversight of participants and child-care providers. The county, however, passed up the chance to use $1.4 million in 2004 and high six-figure sums nearly every year since then. In 2006, the county didn't use $376,000 of its child-care oversight money -- the smallest sum the county left on the table through 2008, state figures show. The county also is on track to leave unspent another $600,000 of its child-care administration funds this year. Counties are not allowed to roll over the money they don't spend on the program in any given year.”

“Cuts proposed for social programs in 2010 stunned and angered Milwaukee County supervisors Wednesday, who said the county's poorest and most vulnerable residents would bear the brunt. The county's Health and Human Services budget request would eliminate $1 million for homeless shelters, $2.4 million for elderly and disabled programs, $721,000 from programs for delinquents and nearly $300,000 from a burial program for low-income families...Such cuts, while Walker insists on a property tax levy freeze, demonstrate the ‘irresponsibility of a no tax-levy increase pledge,’ said Supervisor Theo Lipscomb.”

“The state's unprecedented move Tuesday to strip Milwaukee County of its role in administering food aid, child care and medical assistance programs was prompted by years of county mismanagement, state Health Services Secretary Karen Timberlake said. The takeover requires installing state managers but retaining county case workers, a ‘hybrid model’ she said had never been tried before. Timberlake said that will require a law change that's likely to win legislative support. She said the new setup was the best way to fix the problems quickly.” The state memo noted: “The county's poor performance in the programs includes answering only 5% of the hundreds of thousands of phone calls to the county's public assistance call center every month; The county fails to process 30% of its benefit applications within the required seven days, with some families waiting weeks or months for food or health care; In 2007, 60% of county decisions to deny food or health care benefits were overturned within two months. That resulted in benefit delays and forced families to go through time-consuming appeals or a second round of applications; and, The county's high food assistance error rate means nearly one in five deserving applicants were cut off from the program in fiscal 2008.”

“Plans by Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker to cut $230,000 for AIDS prevention from the budget next yer were blasted Sunday at the 13th annual AIDS Walk Wisconsin….In Milwaukee County, county money is not directly used to buy needles, but the money does pay for staffing an AIDS prevention program that, in turn, provides the clean needles. The program began in 2000. In announcing the proposed cut last week, Walker said he did not like the idea of using ‘tax dollars to support illegal activity.’ In an interview Sunday, Walker said he did not consider AIDS prevention ‘a core function of the county. It probably would be better addressed by the city or the state health department.’