Why did I vote to let hungry kids starve?
Who in their right mind would deny food to a hungry child? Certainly, I would not, so why did I vote against Sun Bucks?
In their budget request, Wyoming Department of Family Services asked for an exception request (monies not already in their standard budget) in the amount of over 3.5 million dollars.
That money did not include a dime for food; this was all administration costs. Here are the details:
Of that $3.5 million (biennially), $1.9 million was ongoing, never-ending expenses. $213 k for a full-time program manager, over $62K for office supplies and over $1.6 million dollars for “Professional Fees.”
There was an additional request for a one-time start-up projected at $1.6 million for computers and software.
Stop and think about that, over a million and a half dollars, to set up an office for one person, and a $30k/year office supply budget on top of that, and over $800 thousand dollars a year for “Professional fees.”
It starts there, but that would only be the beginning, and we still have not paid a dime to feed any kids.
Just how much money did they expect a child to receive for the entire summer? $120 from the federal government.
DFS said, “This program represents the most effective way to ensure income-eligible children have access to food during the summer since school-based distribution sites are limited.”
There are other reasons for not expanding the welfare state, but there is not much bang for the buck here, if you ask me. They did, and we, the legislature, said no.
Ken Pendergraft represents House District 29 and lives in Sheridan
