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Friday, April 20, 2012
Politics / News A Note for Frank Antenori and His Love of Welfare Drug Tests
Posted by Dan Gibson on Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 1:00 PM
Frank Antenori has been a champion of drug testing recipients of public assistance, but it turns out in Florida, which doing this for awhile, it just doesn't work on any level whatsoever:
Required drug tests for people seeking welfare benefits ended up costing taxpayers more than it saved and failed to curb the number of prospective applicants, data used against the state in an ongoing legal battle shows....Of the 4,086 applicants who scheduled drug tests while the law was enforced, 108 people, or 2.6 percent, failed, most often testing positive for marijuana. About 40 people scheduled tests but canceled them, according to the Department of Children and Families, which oversees Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, known as the TANF program.
The numbers, confirming previous estimates, show that taxpayers spent $118,140 to reimburse people for drug test costs, at an average of $35 per screening.
The state’s net loss? $45,780.
"That’s not counting attorneys and court fees and the thousands of hours of staff time it took to implement this policy," Newton said.
The law also didn’t impact the number of people who applied for benefits.
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