“It is also the right time to address many unmet needs… from dilapidated school buildings… to a lack of access to healthcare… to deteriorating public housing and a growing homeless problem… to overburdened transportation systems.”
What she didn’t say:
It’s also the perfect time to fix what ails the state’s welfare system. According to state Auditor Marian Higa’s recent report, the whole program is so disorganized that it’s hard to tell how well money is being spent. “Perhaps those who got services will feel the money was well spent,” she wrote. “But what about people who didn’t get money but may have been more deserving of those services?” For her part, state Department of Human Services Director Lillian Koller—a Lingle crony from way back—told the Associated Press on Jan. 25, 2006 that the state is doing fine and even lowered caseloads by 7.4 percent from 2003 to 2005. What she didn’t say was whether that decrease was due to people transitioning from welfare to work or simply dropping out of the system entirely. – Anthony Pignataro
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