Income Maintenance Programs
“Helen Jones-Kelley, a longtime advocate for struggling children, was appointed by the governor to oversee the state’s largest agency, the Department of Job and Family Services,” but will her devotion to children impair her ability to manage income maintenance programs? In order for an income maintenance program to be successful, it must reduce poverty while minimizing costs and maintaining work incentives. Jones-Kelley referring to the tragic story of 6-year old Michael makes one suspect she may be too concerned with the objective to reduce poverty, possibly leading to high program costs and low incentives to work.
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High program costs may not be the issue for the state of Ohio. In 2004, for instance, the proportion of state spending on welfare programs, particularly child welfare, was just 10 percent of the total costs, 49th out of 50 states. There is going to be an issue if the burden shifts more to the taxpayers, as it has started to do in Ohio, because workers would be less likely to work to pay much higher taxes for programs that they may not be able to utilize. If Ms. Kelley wants to make an impact, she should work to shift the funding burden off of the taxpayer, so that there's a larger benefit for Ohioans to work rather than go on welfare.
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