Why County Government Matters (part 2)

Another good job by Alex Hummel today on the loss of $1.4 million in funds to aid in the collection of child support (something I covered before here).

Good quotes from Mark Harris, including on why county government matters:

"If the Senate doesn't save us on this, then the county board is the last line," Harris said.

And this creative quote:

"This is Scrooge showing up at Tiny Tim's house and taking away his loaf of bread instead of giving him a turkey," Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris said.

And of course, here is Tom Petri's response to voting for this turkey:

Petri was not immediately available for comment on Monday. A Washington staff representative said he and a legislative director were in the district. They did not return a phone message.

And, because I need to point this out:

The House of Representatives approved the budget reconciliation package, 212-206, shortly before 6 a.m. Eastern time Monday, according to the House Web site. Wisconsin's delegation split along party lines.

U.S. Rep Tom Petri and fellow state Republicans Mark Green, Paul Ryan and James Sensenbrenner voted for the budget reconciliation measure. Democrats Tammy Baldwin, Ron Kind, David Obey and Gwen Moore opposed it.

Here is more from the article:

The U.S. House of Representatives voted "yes" Monday to a $40 billion, 2006 budget reconciliation package including deep cuts in child support funding that will sap Winnebago County of vital money.

The U.S. Senate is expected to take up the bill this week. If the budget-trimming measure is approved, Winnebago County will lose $1.4 million in funding for child support collections staff who track down delinquent or in-arrears parents and force them to make their child support payments.

Many of the families who rely on the money are single and low-income residents who have fought their way out of welfare. And many are weathering tough times, as the costs of home heating, gasoline and other necessities have risen and a growing number of state residents are living in poverty. The state's poverty-rate increase between 2003 and 2004 led the nation.

In 2005, Winnebago County logged 7,000 child-support cases. Harris said the funding decreases would have a domino effect, prompting layoffs, reduced case loads and, ultimately, fewer single parents and single-parent families getting their payments.

Harris called the House-approved cuts "maybe the meanest legislation to pass during my lifetime."

"It's not caught the public's attention, but it's definitely something that the counties across the country are aware of," he said. "… If this makes it through the Senate, I will have to cut back workers in that office and if I don't want them to bare the highest brunt of this cut, then I'll have to look to other essential workers. This is going to be a very bad Christmas for the working poor."

"What do cuts like this mean for states?" Kohl asked during a Senate debate last week, according to a release on his Web site. "And, more importantly, what will cuts like this mean for hard working American families? It will mean more families falling back on welfare; it will mean roadblocks to thousands of families on their way to independence and self sufficiency, it will mean undoing the great progress made by a government program that really works."

Kohl's office states Wisconsin would lose more than $143.5 million over the next five years "and county child support agency operating budgets could be reduced by as much as two-thirds."