Funding cut to South Dakota’s assistance program for our state’s neediest kids was unnecessarily cruel
A terrible mistake was made by cutting the support for South Dakota’s most destitute children.
The unprecedented, unnecessary, harmful cut came outside the normal process for state budgeting. Long after the Legislature ended with sufficient funding for these children, a surprise showed up this summer in the public notices: TANF payments were being cut 10%. TANF is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, a federal-state program for children in desperate need.
For sure Congress has now increased the financial burdens on states, as our governor acknowledges. But the TANF cut as the immediate and first response is surely a mistake. Congress did not cut TANF. And nothing else in all of our state government received this 10% cut, only the children’s TANF payments.
Another excuse for the cut was a claim that the state is paying more state match than required to get the federal TANF block grant. However, the state has always qualified by providing the right amount of children’s services. It was only made to seem in excess when someone decided to move an education program over to Social Services in order to use TANF funds to pay for it. That was a mistake.
Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) is a very good educational program. It can and should be moved back to the Education Department and funded there as usual, not by taking money from our poorest children.
The cut, saving the state less than $1.5 million, was allowed by the Rules Committee one day after $63 million left over from last year’s appropriations was added to the state’s reserves. The TANF cut money won’t make much difference in the state budget, but in families surviving on so little, the $51-a-month average loss is huge.
Cutting TANF payments has been unthinkable! Nobody does that! I believe South Dakotans want to help vulnerable children get through very hard times. We don’t want our poorest children to have to pay for the functions of state government. With TANF, we wrap our arms around them when they need us most. The payments should be increased to be more adequate and adjusted annually for inflation.
As Mahatma Gandhi said, “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.”
Cathy Brechtelsbauer of Sioux Falls is the volunteer state coordinator for Bread for the World and a long-time advocate for policies impacting hunger and poverty.
Photo provided by Cathy Brechtelsbauer
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