Kansas food stamp recipients won’t be required to complete work training after Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a bill to make the existing voluntary program mandatory.
Kelly vetoed HB 2448 on Friday, likely killing the Republican-led effort, which failed to reach a supermajority when it passed the House last month.
“Every Kansan feels the price of the pandemic-induced inflation at the pumps and at the grocery store,” Kelly said in a statement. “The cost of food alone is one of the most significant contributors to inflation overall.
“With the rising costs of these necessities, we should be helping people afford the basics. This bill would unnecessarily burden nearly 30,000 hard-working Kansans, including people caring for their families and impacting those with children.”
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Republican leader anticipated veto
“The Governor has made clear that welfare in Kansas is not about a hand up, but merely keeping people down,” House Speaker Ron Ryckman, R-Olathe, said in a statement. “Her veto cuts clean through her rhetoric and puts truth to the lie that she wants to lift people out of poverty. We know that a job is the best way to lead to prosperity and the Governor no longer cares to help the most needy find one.”
House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, predicted a veto in a past newsletter.
“It goes against her preferred governing strategy of giving out goodies at taxpayer expense,” Hawkins said.
Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, said in a statement that Kelly is “using welfare benefits to curry votes rather than help get Kansans back to work.” He promised to attempt a veto override.
The Senate’s 28-11 vote was good enough to override the veto, but the House’s 70-46 vote was well short of reaching a two-thirds majority.
Masterson accused Kelly of engaging in a “war on work.”
“It is hard to comprehend that during a time in which Kansas is experiencing record unemployment, the governor would veto a bill aimed at getting able-bodied adults back into the workforce or on a pathway out of poverty, towards self-sufficiency and personal prosperity,” he said.
However, data show Kansas has record-low unemployment. Even if every able-bodied adult without a dependent and every unemployed individual were to get a job, the state would still have tens of thousands of unfilled openings.
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GOP saw bill as workforce solution
The bill would have instituted a new requirement for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as food stamps. Able-bodied adults without dependents who work less than 30 hours a week would have to complete an employment and training program.
Republican logic behind the bill centered on it being a solution to workforce shortages, in addition to general disapproval of welfare programs. Democrats claimed that it kicked the working poor off of food stamps, potentially forcing people to quit jobs that offer less than 30 hours a week.
“Instead of just offering welfare, the state would be offering opportunity,” Hawkins said. “Providing job training would help these individuals gain new skills and find a way out of the poverty cycle.
“There are a ton of jobs open across the state just waiting for qualified individuals to fill. This legislation can help make that happen.”
Rep. Pat Proctor, R-Fort Leavenworth, had said it would help people “get themselves and their families out of bondage, out of this trap of generational poverty.”
But Republicans appeared to have conflicting expectations of how such a program would actually play out. Some contended that most beneficiaries would take advantage of the work training program and find a new job.
“The whole purpose of this is to encourage people to get the training to go back to work,” said Sen. Beverly Gossage, R-Eudora.
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Democrat push back against growing government
Others suggested that relatively few would abide by the requirement and would instead lose their benefits and receive no training.
“We think that people will most likely just go back to work for 30 hours rather than go to the class,” said Rep. Sean Tarwater, R-Stilwell.
A fiscal note indicated that state officials expected the latter result. Historical data on the voluntary program suggests a mandatory program would have a participation rate of about 9.3%.
That low participation rate would also keep the program from being as costly as it otherwise would be.
Democrats jumped on the growth in government required to administer such a costly program. Fiscal estimates anticipated hiring new positions at a $2.7 million annual cost.
Rep. Jason Probst, D-Hutchinson, said fiscal conservatives should consider the bill to be bad policy as it “unnecessarily” grows government “just to be mean to poor people.”
“We’re going to spend state money, we’re going to hire more than 30 employees to administer this program and expand it, to decide who gets federal money that comes into the state that’s already allocated to us,” he said.
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‘Workforce shortage crisis’
The only proponent of the legislation during committee hearings was a former Maine government official who works for a Florida organization that also lobbied in Kansas for election security laws.
“Kansas has a workforce shortage crisis,” said Sam Adolphsen of Opportunity Solutions Project.
He cited Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers showing 95,000 open jobs statewide as of November.
“There are tens of thousands of able-bodied adults on your welfare programs that could fill those jobs,” he told lawmakers, later claiming there are 40,000 to 50,000 able-bodied adults on food stamps in Kansas.
State data show a monthly average of about 14,000 able-bodied adults without dependents receive SNAP benefits.
Conversations over whether the bill would move people off the government dole and into a waiting job also ignored workforce quality questions, which the Kansas Chamber has reported is the top business concern.
The Friday veto followed the Kansas Department of Labor’s release of the March labor market report earlier in the day.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 2.5%, the same as the previous month and tied for the lowest reported rate on record. The state has nearly 37,000 unemployed individuals.
Economists blame early retirements, child care, low wages
Labor economists have previously blamed much of the unfilled jobs numbers on early retirements, mothers not returning to work due to limited child care options and low wages.
The KDOL release backs up the worker pay part.
“Kansas hourly wages trended higher in March, rising 6.6% over the year,” said KDOL labor economist Nathan Kessler. “However, due to continued inflationary pressure, Kansas real hourly earnings declined by 1.8% compared to March 2021.”
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Jason Tidd is a statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jtidd@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jason_Tidd.
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