PressHerald

Since 2012, when Gov. Paul LePage and his allies successfully established a 60-month lifetime cap on federal welfare benefits, Maine has drastically reduced both its caseload and its spending. In September, LePage claimed that that heroin dealers arrested in Maine are overwhelmingly black or Hispanic, even though statistics don’t support that contention. [MORE]

The state still gets the same amount every year under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant program – about $78 million – but instead of shifting that extra money to other areas designed to assist low-income families with children, Maine has mostly sat on it.

In less than five years, the LePage administration has quietly stockpiled $155 million in unspent TANF funds, according to state budget data, an unused balance that has grown at a rate higher than any other state in that time. Maine’s total as a percentage of annual grant funding is among the highest in the country as well.

Meanwhile, extreme childhood poverty – defined as families making less than 50 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $10,000 – has increased in Maine during that time.

In 2011, the year before the administration’s major welfare reform push, there were an estimated 18,000 Maine children in extreme poverty. The number increased to 23,000 in 2014 before dropping back down to 19,000 last year, according to Kids Count, an annual report published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Samantha Edwards, in an email this month, said the drastic reduction in caseload – from 13,300 in May 2012 to 5,200 this May – has indeed allowed the state to build significant TANF reserves. But she expects that will plateau this year and then be depleted gradually going forward as the state spends funds in other areas allowed under the program.

However, Edwards said even as the state begins directing its unused funds to other programs, it will still work to keep a solid reserve in case an economic downturn adds significantly to the TANF caseload, something that is less likely under the new restrictions.

“It is shortsighted to spend every dollar when there is a 4 (percent) unemployment rate,” she wrote.

As the state looks to use its federal funds in creative ways, it could face increased scrutiny. Just last week, DHHS was cited by the state auditor for improperly managing its TANF funds by trying to transfer $13.4 million over two years to another block grant, which is allowed, and use it to provide care for the elderly, which is not.

Poverty advocates said the need for public assistance remains great and the state’s measure of success should not be the number of people kicked off TANF.

“Maine is the poster child for just cutting people off and not connecting them with jobs or other prospects, and that gets billed as success,” said Liz Schott, a senior fellow with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a national left-leaning organization, and an expert on the TANF program. “How can you call it success when poverty hasn’t gone down?” [MORE]