BY JOE RAGUSA KENTUCKY

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Rep. David Meade, (R) Stanford, co-sponsored House Bill 3 earlier this year, which would have required drug screening, work requirements and other conditions for people receiving food assistance or other state aid.

“That was simply just a bill to get the discussion started,” Meade said. “There was no intent on filing and passing that bill. There was not much discussion as we went through the session on that bill. The full intent was to form this task force in order to be able to discuss where do we go with public assistance.”

Now Meade is the co-chairman of the Public Assistance Reform Task Force.

The group met Wednesday to hear testimony from the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services.

Agency members discussed the pros and cons of drug screening for people on public aid.

Director Douglas Beard said the cost of drug screening would far outweigh any savings the state would get from removing benefits from offenders.

“If a person were to be denied because of drug screening and they were not to receive their SNAP benefit, the cost of implementing that drug screening program would all be on the state of Kentucky,” Beard said. “For SNAP, there would be a 50/50 (cost) split, but as far as what was recovered from that, it would return directly to the federal government, so there would be no return to the state for that program, as well as TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families).”

And not only that, he said it would discourage people from even applying for benefits, which not only hurts adults but their children as well.

Rep. Nima Kulkarmi, (D) Louisville, is the only Democrat on the task force and she said she’s hopeful the task force’s discussions will lead to fewer restrictions on public assistance.

“I think it’s going to be much more difficult for somebody to say that Kentucky needs to implement work requirements and drug screening requirements in order to retain public benefits, because what we’ve seen in these meetings is that the data does not bear that out,” Kulkarmi said. “So if you’re doing this, it’s for punitive measures. It’s not based in data-driven science, it’s not based in data-driven trends, and it’s not based on data that’s coming from our own community.”

Meade believes drug screening can still be beneficial in terms of getting people out of poverty.

“There are benefits, because we can determine those who need help, who need drug assistance so that we can get them into those programs and get them headed towards a path of recovery.”

He also said any reform needs to be done in a kind and compassionate way, while also holding people accountable for their actions.