TOPEKA — Tax reform advocate Dale Chaffee of Shawnee Mission isn’t a fan of how the state’s food stamp program helps undocumented immigrants in Kansas.
“To me, the question is why decent citizens should be forced to have money taken from them and given to people who don’t have a right to be here,” said Chaffee, who also goes by the nickname "Geezer."
But Chaffee opposes any plan reversing a change to policy last fall that counts any illegal or undocumented immigrant as an income earner for purposes of calculating food stamp assistance, as nearly one in five Kansans are living near or below the federal poverty line.
A change to the current plan could provide illegal or undocumented users of food stamps with better benefits than qualified U.S. citizens, he said.
“That’s totally unacceptable.”
The food stamp program — the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Plan, or SNAP — provides what essentially is a federally loaded debit card to help low-income households with savings of $2,000 or less buy basic food items.
The program is federally funded, but it is managed by the states. Federal law passed in 2001 does not allow undocumented immigrants to receive food stamps, but their U.S.-born children are eligible for the benefits if total household income is below 130 percent of the federal poverty line — $3,321 a month for a family of four.
Most states — including Kansas until last October — count only part of a total household income if one or more members fail to provide proof of legal U.S. residency. If one member of a four-member household failed to provide citizenship or proof of legal residence, the Kansas
Department of Social and Rehabilitation Service, or SRS, essentially counted only 75 percent of the household income.
The state, however, would count 100 percent of the household income if all four members were counted as legal residents.
As a result, an ineligible household of four, on average, could bring in $908 more in income and qualify for the same food stamp benefits, Michelle Schroeder, SRS director of public policy told House Appropriations Committee members.
In October, SRS changed the rules to count all household income equally, regardless of the household members’ immigration status. The U.S. Agriculture Department, which funds food stamp programs, allows states to make either choice. Kansas and three others — Utah, Nebraska and Arizona — follow the tighter rules.
“We decided this was a better policy for Kansas,” Schroeder said. “It treats everybody equally.”
The change also means that fewer households may get food stamp benefits; counting the extra $908 would put some over the upper income limits for qualifying.
More than 2,880 Kansas households stopped getting food stamp benefits in October and November because their income was too high, SRS reports. Of those, 1,042 included one or more ineligible non citizens. On average, 297,000 people each month received Kansas food stamps in 2011, up almost 60 percent from the number in 2008, according to SRS.
But in either case, “the increase in income may or may not be related to the policy change,” Schroeder said. The reports don’t tell why incomes changed.
Even so, some legislators worry the change is not as fair as SRS and Gov. Sam Brownback's administration contend.
“My concern is that we have children who are born here, are legal citizens, and all of a sudden their food stamps are cut off,” said state Rep. Bill Feuerborn, D-Garnett, the highest ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.
“The perception of many people is that this is another way to go after undocumented individuals,” said state Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence.
Neither is true, countered Schroeder. Although SRS is required to check workers’ citizenship status to verify eligibility, the agency is prohibited by federal regulations to share that information with any other agency, she said.
“The policy really is meant to equalize incomes across the board,” she said.
Still, the policy seems anything but fair to low-income Kansans who count on food stamp benefits, said Elena Morales, director of El Centro Inc,., a Kansas City anti-poverty group.
“It is turning an already severe situation into a crisis,” Morales said.
“Low-income people rely on SNAP to subsidize their incomes; it was never meant to be the whole thing,” she said. “But without it, if you need food, you have to decide if you are going to cut back on heating or paying the rent.”
Officially, Brownback “has requested an update on the SNAP, but does not plan to make any additional changes,” said Sherriene Jones-Sontag, the governor's press secretary.
“The policy decision to include all incomes of adult members of a household has nothing to do with cutting aid off (for) children of people who decline to provide proof of legal presence in the United States,” Jones-Sontag said. “It is about properly calculating household income and treating all citizens equally.”
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