Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Virginia Excels at Welfare to Work

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Virginia does do a few things right. One of them is helping welfare recipients get back to work.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has ranked Virginia highest in the nation for job entry rates for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients in 2005 and 2006, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has announced.”

“Virginia leads the nation in helping people transition away from public assistance and into the workforce because of our innovative programs and the dedication of our staff,” Kaine said yesterday. “We’re training TANF recipients for jobs in fields with growing workforce needs, helping secure job placement and retention, while meeting a crucial need in for the Commonwealth’s health care system.”

One example: Through a program launched in 2007, TANF recipients are trained to become certified nursing assistants, filling the growing need for long-term care and direct-care health professionals. In the last two years, 446 recipients have graduated from the programs, and today, nearly 100 are enrolled.

Now, if we could just make some progress on corporate welfare…

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  1. Judy Avatar
    Judy

    Finally some good news! This is a win-win for everyone…healthy people need jobs and sick people need help. This reinforces one of my favorite sayings, “knowledge is power.”

  2. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    not if it costs NoVa taxpayers more than they get back out of it – right?

    this is what is known in the trade as an “double-dip transfer of wealth”

    first.. we’ve giving money to folks who don’t deserve it…

    then.. we’re transferring wealth out of NoVa to counties that don’t deserve it.

  3. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    Give a man a fish and he will have a meal.
    Teach a man to fish and he will have a lifetime of food.

    Give Larry a fish and he’ll try to make a handbasket out of it.
    Teach Larry to fish and he’ll catch the hook on the seat of his pants and roll down the street trying to reel himself in.

    Hopefully the people coming off the welfare rolls will be able to pay local taxes.
    Hopefully the localities where they live will not lower their tax rate and beg for more money from the state as their citizens get jobs (i.e. they will not pursue the “Henrico Option”).
    Hopefully the localities will take their local taxes and fund more of their local educational costs (i.e. the costs of educating their own children) locally
    Hopefully this will allow NoVA to keep more of the tax money it already pays so we can build our roads with our money (since we all love driving to work SOLO in our SUVs).

    “Now, if we could just make some progress on corporate welfare…”

    Now, if we could just make the same progress on jurisdictional welfare…”

  4. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    Calling All Descendants of Pocohontas…

    Calling All Descendants of Pocohontas…

    The 2010 Census is approaching and Virginia will be changing. As you know, change is always bad and should always be avoided.

    What to do?

    What to do?

    Don’t worry – your Ole Pal Groveton has the answer: Floating Lilypad Cities! These cities hold up to 50,000 people each and can be floated away from any and all change. The entire population of the Richmond MSA could get into just 25 of these Lillypad Cities and float away from change. No more listening to the nuts in NoVA, no more Hampton Road hotheads screaming about the regional transportation authority, no more liberals in Charlottesville insisting that climate change is real.

    Order your Lilypad Cities today!

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1031438/Pictured-The-floating-cities-day-house-climate-change-refugees.html

  5. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    “Hopefully the people coming off the welfare rolls will be able to pay local taxes.”

    hopefully?

    how is that different from stealing NoVa money for educating kids?

    hopefully?

    is that ALL you can say?

    It’s highway robbery if other locality lower their tax rates with NoVa education money

    ..but it’s “hopeful” that they will do otherwise with WELFARE money …STOLEN from NoVa?

    I am truly tongue-twaddled here…and my brain is not far behind…

    my head is spinning Grovteon.. it’s liable to spin 370 degrees if I’m not able to control it..

    say some more… say some more.. let’s shoot for 460 degrees!

  6. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    Larry:

    If your head is really spinning in circles, I know a priest that will try an exorcism. In some ways – I am happy to read you post – demonic possession would explain a lot of your prior posts.

    Why “hopefully”? Because, in a state with a strict Dillon Rule construct, one can do no more than hope.

    Why is it not stealing? Because the money seems to be used to actually get people off welfare instead of being used to subsidize a lower “local contribution” (read: lower local taxes). Because people on welfare observably need help. The money is targeted to those in need. Blindly subsidizing school systems with some wealthy and some poor children does not target need. It subsidizes the rich residents of the jurisdiction who pay less in local taxes.

    This really isn’t hard.

    Should I call Father Joe?

  7. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    Dang!

    I was hoping you had a Welfare spreadsheet that showed how these yokel RoVa jurisdictions are fleecing NoVa for welfare payments…

    so… we know that when they ask for money for their “poor” kids they are lying through their teeth..

    but if they switch the word “kids” to be “welfare recipients” – we are reassured.. that all is well..

    I just did not realize that the real problem was putting the “right” recipient in the “we need money for” statement.

    Pocahontas would be proud.

    See.. all along.. I was thinking there might have been some substance to the original claim but now I am becoming convinced that if someone like the Gov puts out a report saying just how useful those payments have been – that the concern just melts away.

    so.. perhaps Kaine should just slather on some more welfare money from NoVa ..lower the school diversion money (taking full credit for it of course) and then just secretly funnel some of that welfare money to schools.

    So.. you see Pocahontas has proved once again.. that with the “right message” , you can still fleece NoVa folks even with their eyes wide open.

    Father Joe would be proud.

  8. Darrell -- Chesapeake Avatar
    Darrell — Chesapeake

    I don’t know how it works up there, but down here in Tidewater no one gets off welfare. The idea is to not work so many hours that one loses free money. It’s a pretty nifty arrangment. The reciprients get paid double for the same amount of work, and state employees get high paid jobs to pretend they care.

  9. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    Pocohontas was not the problem. She, like NoVA, trusted RoVA rats (John Smith and John Rolfe). This trust led directly to her death at age 22 and the theft of her father’s (Chief Powhatan’s) land. She was simply the first of many trusting people to suffer at the hands of “Richmond”. The fact that those who caused her death and the loss of her tribe’s land now revel in their Pocohontas legacy is all the more sad. Like a mass murderer who keeps a necklace made of the forefingers of his victims, The Descendants pay homage to Pocohontas only as a fond rememberance of their ghastly behavior.

  10. Darrell -- Chesapeake Avatar
    Darrell — Chesapeake

    Ok… I must have missed something in one of the threads that I don’t read. Who and what are these Descendants of Pocohontas? I assume the term has some relevance to the GA.

  11. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    I don’t want to speak for Groveton but he probably is gone for a few days and without blog access.

    Basically, Groveton’s premise is that Virginia is run by a “in” group of folks who are adherents and descendants of folks who have a “ruling class” mindset – and that a modern society like NoVa is being held hostage by old thinking of an imperial elite – with some very nasty skeletons to boot.

    Unlike HR/TW, Groveton believes that the NoVa governance is more competent and plugged-in to how NoVa “works” and it’s needs than RoVa/Richmond.

    I probably screwed this up.. but I think I lobbed it in the general direction…

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