When she found out that a special Legislative “Commission” had, after much public debate and little or no real data had proposed some punitive, unrealistic, unenforceable new laws to limit the use of EBT cards by welfare recipients?
She’d say Please Urge Your Representative NOT to Sign Onto the O’Connell-Holmes Impractical, Costly and Unconstitutional EBT Bill. And she’d hand you a fact sheet.
The commission acknowledged that it had limited data on the extent of fraud in the system, though critics have pointed anecdotally to incidents such as the arrests of eight people in Lynn last year for allegedly using money obtained through their cards to buy cocaine.
“I’m not going to legislate anything based upon what we think or hearsay I think we need to see the data,” said State Sen. Jennifer Flanagan.
However, the commission did advise that Massachusetts go above and beyond existing state law, as well as a recently passed federal law, by expanding the ban on establishments that can accept EBT cards. ……………members of the commission will file legislation to ban nail salons, tattoo parlors, firearms dealers, bars, smoke shops and spas from accepting EBT cards. Jewelry stores, Rent-A-Centers, health clubs, cruise ships and psychic readers were considered but not added to the list. It also remains unclear how that ban will be enforced.
The facts : all cash assistance recipients (TAFDC and EAEDC) get their cash on an EBT card, unless they have a bank account they’ve designated for direct deposit (a likely minuscule percentage of such folks given how cash strapped most are). There are some recipients who have other sources of income (work and child support) so the attempt to regulate the cash they spend can be fraught with error, unless there is an administratively feasible (and inexpensive) way to restrict only the cash on the card and not in a bank account or the cash in a wallet.
Please Urge Your Representative NOT to Sign Onto the O’Connell-Holmes Impractical, Costly and Unconstitutional EBT Bill. Here’s a fact sheet.
