Welfare recipients get $12,000 from strip club ATMs
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Ohio
Gov. Schwarzenegger orders the California Department of Social Services to remove the clubs from a list of businesses approved for state-issued cards.
California welfare recipients have been able to get taxpayer cash — meant to feed and clothe their children — from ATMs at strip clubs across the state, including some well-known gentlemen's cabarets in Los Angeles.
More than $12,000 from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program was dispensed between the start of 2007 and the end of 2009 at clubs, including Sam's Hofbrau, Star Strip and Seventh Veil, according to officials at the state Department of Social Services.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered the department to remove the clubs from the official list of businesses where welfare recipients can withdraw benefits using state-issued ATM cards.
The move came a day after The Times asked the administration how much welfare cash had been withdrawn at 17 adult clubs in recent years, and less than a week after The Times reported that more than half the casinos and state-licensed poker rooms in California appear on the state website showing welfare recipients where they can access cash benefits.
After that report, Schwarzenegger ordered the casinos struck from the state's ATM network and directed the Department of Social Services to produce a plan to reduce "waste, fraud and abuse" in the welfare program.
"We'll take a wide-ranging look and apply some common sense to the list of outlets where cash assistance should not be withdrawn," Department of Social Services spokeswoman Lizelda Lopez wrote in an e-mail to The Times on Tuesday evening, announcing that her department had "taken steps to deactivate ATMs in adult entertainment clubs."
Strip club managers seemed shocked that welfare benefits have been accessible through their ATMs. In most cases the machines are provided by a third party, the managers said, and they have no way of knowing their ATMs are part of the state system.
The state contracts with the Quest ATM network.
"If there's a way that the ATM can reject their card if they're on welfare, I'm really and truly all for that," said Merle Matias, manager at Sam's Hofbrau in downtown Los Angeles, where $2,159 has been withdrawn, according to Department of Social Services officials. "I don't think it will affect us at all."
Star Strip manager Joey Mancini said state officials must be wrong about the $1,265 they said has been withdrawn from his club's ATM. The Quest symbol isn't on the machine, he said, adding that he thinks any system that allows access to welfare benefits at a strip club should be reformed.
"This is not what that money is for," he said.
A manger at Seventh Veil declined to comment.
Nearly $4.8 million has been withdrawn from ATMs at casinos and poker rooms with welfare benefits cards from 2007 through last month, state officials said last week. The vast majority of that, $4.4 million, was withdrawn at tribal casinos.
"This is a huge amount of money when we're slashing programs right and left," said Assemblywoman Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa), who added that the Schwarzenegger administration should have caught the problem years ago.
In May, Schwarzenegger proposed eliminating the CalWorks program, which provides the cash portion of welfare benefits, as part of his plan to close the state's $19-billion budget deficit.
Advocates for the poor say that it would be unconscionable to cut any more from the state's already shrinking social safety net, arguing that there are good reasons to preserve access to cash benefits even at gambling establishments.
"Casinos in some rural places have become like little hubs of the community," said Michael Herald, a lobbyist for the Western Center on Law and Poverty. "My guess is there's a small contingent of CalWorks recipients who work at, or live near, these casinos."
July 1, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-…
California welfare recipients have been able to get taxpayer cash — meant to feed and clothe their children — from ATMs at strip clubs across the state, including some well-known gentlemen's cabarets in Los Angeles.
More than $12,000 from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program was dispensed between the start of 2007 and the end of 2009 at clubs, including Sam's Hofbrau, Star Strip and Seventh Veil, according to officials at the state Department of Social Services.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered the department to remove the clubs from the official list of businesses where welfare recipients can withdraw benefits using state-issued ATM cards.
The move came a day after The Times asked the administration how much welfare cash had been withdrawn at 17 adult clubs in recent years, and less than a week after The Times reported that more than half the casinos and state-licensed poker rooms in California appear on the state website showing welfare recipients where they can access cash benefits.
After that report, Schwarzenegger ordered the casinos struck from the state's ATM network and directed the Department of Social Services to produce a plan to reduce "waste, fraud and abuse" in the welfare program.
"We'll take a wide-ranging look and apply some common sense to the list of outlets where cash assistance should not be withdrawn," Department of Social Services spokeswoman Lizelda Lopez wrote in an e-mail to The Times on Tuesday evening, announcing that her department had "taken steps to deactivate ATMs in adult entertainment clubs."
Strip club managers seemed shocked that welfare benefits have been accessible through their ATMs. In most cases the machines are provided by a third party, the managers said, and they have no way of knowing their ATMs are part of the state system.
The state contracts with the Quest ATM network.
"If there's a way that the ATM can reject their card if they're on welfare, I'm really and truly all for that," said Merle Matias, manager at Sam's Hofbrau in downtown Los Angeles, where $2,159 has been withdrawn, according to Department of Social Services officials. "I don't think it will affect us at all."
Star Strip manager Joey Mancini said state officials must be wrong about the $1,265 they said has been withdrawn from his club's ATM. The Quest symbol isn't on the machine, he said, adding that he thinks any system that allows access to welfare benefits at a strip club should be reformed.
"This is not what that money is for," he said.
A manger at Seventh Veil declined to comment.
Nearly $4.8 million has been withdrawn from ATMs at casinos and poker rooms with welfare benefits cards from 2007 through last month, state officials said last week. The vast majority of that, $4.4 million, was withdrawn at tribal casinos.
"This is a huge amount of money when we're slashing programs right and left," said Assemblywoman Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa), who added that the Schwarzenegger administration should have caught the problem years ago.
In May, Schwarzenegger proposed eliminating the CalWorks program, which provides the cash portion of welfare benefits, as part of his plan to close the state's $19-billion budget deficit.
Advocates for the poor say that it would be unconscionable to cut any more from the state's already shrinking social safety net, arguing that there are good reasons to preserve access to cash benefits even at gambling establishments.
"Casinos in some rural places have become like little hubs of the community," said Michael Herald, a lobbyist for the Western Center on Law and Poverty. "My guess is there's a small contingent of CalWorks recipients who work at, or live near, these casinos."
July 1, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-…
10 comments
The First one is California. Cal is billions in the red, taxes everything, the price of living is outrageous, and government spending (see above) is completely out of control. By the way, companies are fleeing Cal and the unemployment rate is above the national average.
The Second one is Texas. Texas has money in the bank, no state income tax, very little regulation, unemployment way below the national average, and companies are relocating to Texas.
GET REAL, CALIFORNIA.
For starters, why not replace all those welfare vouchers with credits at the local Goodwill Industry and Salvation Army, and some kind of a food dispensary with the same flavor.
I lived in California for a while and still visit it (don't we all?) I have no sympathy for the self-inflicted wounds the Californians have imposed on themselves.
Dudester is correct about two different culture centers. And that is how our Republic is supposed to work. The concept of Federalism is to allow the states to be independent and be a "test" for different ideas. Obviously, Texas' ideas are working much better than California's.
Wherever liberals are in power that place is a mess e.g., San Francisco, New York city, Chicago, LA, etc.
I love Texas, by the way. I may even move there someday when California becomes intolerable. And they have great SC's!
LOL...no one, but NO ONE is looking to TX to see where the future of this country is going to lie.
"Texas has money in the bank"
Nope. They have huge deficits that the current Governor lies about.
"unemployment way below the national average"
...for the last couple of years only. Before that, of course (as we've discussed before), it was *above* the national average, when the economy was doing much, much better (especially during the 1990s!).
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=usun…
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"I think Dudester is onto something here."
Trust me...Dudster is hardly *ever* onto anything, ever..because he never seems to be able to get his facts straight.
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"Obviously, Texas' ideas are working much better than California's"
...only in the minds of those that don't bother paying attention to the facts. Look, CA is screwed up for sure...for a whole lot of reasons that cross Party lines, but the idea that TX is doing it all right is simply laughable! LOL...
"Wherever liberals are in power that place is a mess e.g., San Francisco, New York city, Chicago, LA, etc."
LOL...NYC is being run by a guy that used to a GOPer. Take your blinders off...we're recovering from a recession that started under a GOPer, period.
LOL...the same ole, same ole nonsense from you old man...what a drag...
Your buddy GWB had the biggest increase in the federal debt as a % of GDP (which is favorite measure of the GOP) since at least President Truman...that's 27.1%! From FY2003-2007, roughly $500-600 Billion was added to the U.S.'s public debt *per year*. The FY2008 budget (which was submitted by GWB) added roughly $1 Trillion to the U.S.'s public debt. Prior to FY2010 (for which Obama submitted a budget), much of the costs for the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan were *not* included in "official" budget deficit calculations. The FY2009 budget (which was submitted by GWB) added roughly over $1.5 Trillion to the U.S.'s public debt & much of that was due to the net effect of GWB's tax cuts for the rich, unnecessary War in Iraq, GWB's Medicare Part D "reform" (which was totally unpaid for), the worst recession that the U.S. has had since the Great Depression (which started under GWB's watch), and the Wall Street bailouts that GWB started.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Defici…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Defici…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CBO_Fo…