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What are the Core Principles?


The Rule of Law

Private Property



Limited Government



Free Trade



Low Taxes



Entrepreneurship



Personal Responsibility




Seven Principles of a Sound Economy



1. Free people are not equal, and equal people are not free.


2. What belongs to you, you tend to take care of; what belongs to everyone
tends to fall into disrepair.


3. Consider long-run effects for all, not simply short-run effects for the
few.


4. If you encourage something, you get more of it; if you discourage
something, you get less.


5. Nobody spends somebody else's money as carefully as he spends his own.
6. Gov't has nothing to give anyone except what it first takes from someone
else.


7. Liberty makes all the difference in the world.





Thanks to Lawrence Reed and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.




Dear Scott,

I have reported here before that the Michigan Department of Human Services
is woefully inefficient. We just received a new audit from the Office of
the Auditor General (OAG). Unfortunately, things have not improved. Read
on...




Gongwer News Reports: DHS Inefficient, Costing the State Millions


Here are excerpts from a story from the March 12 Gongwer News.



AUDIT: DHS INEFFICIENT IN WELFARE PAYMENTS, COSTING STATE MILLIONS



The Department of Human Services (DHS) is struggling to accurately and
timely identify who is qualified to receive assistance, costing the state
millions in misspent assistance dollars and millions more in potential
federal sanctions and lost incentives, said a report from Auditor General
(OAG) Thomas McTavish released on Friday.

DHS, which is responsible for determining eligibility for cash, food
assistance, childcare and Medicaid cases, didn't effectively catch or fix
errors in determination in the four years reviewed by the audit, from
October 2002 through November 2006, the audit said.

Among the chief finds of auditors was that DHS mistakenly sent out
payments in fiscal year 2006-06 in 7.5 percent of cases, which the report
attributed to ever increasing caseloads from workers.

Although DHS has made strides in its system, the error rate in Michigan
in 2005-06 was still 1.5 percent higher than the federal government
tolerates, opening the state to economic sanctions much like the $89 million
the federal government initiated for the fiscal years 1995-02.

Not only is Michigan inaccurate in its approvals but it's slow, too,
the report said.

Michigan ranks 45th in its turnaround time with 81 percent of clients
receiving approvals within the 30 days required by the federal government.
That compares to Massachusetts, which ranked first and informs nearly 99
percent of its clients about their case status within a month.

In order to progress further, DHS said, it needs more "resources,"
because, although officials agreed with many of the audit's suggestions,
they can't comply with them without more funds.

Among the fixes the department said it would initiate with more money
is a study of how many workers it needs to handle caseloads and what tasks
could be done by other staff members to increase worker availability for
clients.

With more than 75 percent of workers and 87 percent of managers
reporting that caseloads are too high, the study will likely find that more
staff is needed, but the department said it can't hire more workers without
additional funding.



As usual, the Department immediately cries "We need more money! We need more
staff!" They told the OAG they would use additional dollars to "do a
study". In fact, the OAG said that "DHS did not conduct a workload analysis
to determine optimal caseworker staffing levels" and not only did they not
do that last year, they hadn't done it in 2001-02 after being told they
should by the Auditor General. So now they say they will if we give them
more money?



You may read the audit for yourself. Here is the link:
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001WzcRP7pqrrsCmxuuOlc_WTfMy8C1ZQWSfpUj3nVfeNuQ67hW
2vKzLrYaR-FQPOGm4KbnDr8BM_6Hzh-DUEL65FcJA1TBRaUQY_PNPYmeavV3Jq9mMJbHufz6enu9
n5i91EIdVjMeSD6h9CWemaNMPaeIxG6953f0>
http://audgen.michigan.gov/comprpt/docs/r431028505.pdf



Does DHS need more staff? Do they have too many managers and not enough case
workers? It is hard to get those answers; the Department is not forthcoming.
The bottom line is the Department of Human Services has been woefully
inefficient and inept for years and it continues to be in spite of repeated
Audit Reports reporting the problem and even suggesting the solution. This
is a problem that cannot be fixed by the OAG and it cannot be fixed by the
Legislature. It must be addressed by the "Executive". That's right folks; I
am talking about the governor and her department heads.



I hate to sound like a broken record, but my Transparency bill, which would
expose the entire state budget, including that of the DHS, to the sunshine
for everyone to see and closely examine, would go a long way toward
resolving many of these issues.



On March 12, 2008, a joint committee of the Legislature met to ask for
answers from the Department. What was their answer? We need more staff. We
need more time. We are implementing a new program in the NEXT TWO YEARS.
Once we have that in place, it will be better.



Here is hoping that Director Ismael Ahmed, the recently appointed Director
of DHS can effectively address the issue.





What is Going on in the House?


To keep abreast of bills moving through the House of Representatives, check
my blog. I will be posting when the House is in session at
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001WzcRP7pqrrsGPguoZCcx1MW9K6gmbkQWCnCwa4K1u8s-vP4X
khTBkzDHITtyNT2rFT-eWoUAd_wr6WUi7uSgjpBbHZJZT7s8sxZcDf5sB5_X5GwQ5v522SoqdGP6
tTcGtOALLwda4W8=> www.CorePrinciples.blogspot.com






Jack Hoogendyk
JackHoogendyk@...


This newsletter is written by Jack Hoogendyk, who is solely responsible for
its content. The opinions expressed here are those of the author alone.







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