Maybe somebody in Kansas really does have a heart?

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Kansas Waffles On Restriction That Would Only Let People Withdraw A Max Of $25 From Welfare Each Day
By Kay Steiger, June 10, 2015

Though Kansas has been deadlocked over whether to raise taxes — something that should be unthinkable under its “tea party experiment” of baiting economic growth with lower taxes — it may be rolling back one particularly egregious aspect of restricting benefits on the poor.

As the Huffington Post’s Arthur Delaney reported, the legislature passed an amendment over the weekend that would give Secretary of Children and Families Services the authority to alter or eliminate a restriction that gained national news: limiting Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefit withdrawals to $25 per day. Many pointed out that not only was this burdensome in terms of time and effort, many ATMs only distribute money in $20 increments and add fees to outside withdrawals. The law also enacted some other limits on welfare benefits, including a lifetime cap of 36 months, drug testing, and restrictions on spending benefits on a variety of expenses deemed to be frivolous, including movie theaters and cruise ships. (This is on top of Kansas also kicking more than 20,000 people off food stamps.) The vote rolling back the daily limit kept those other restrictions in place.

Kansas has been in the midst of a crisis on how to govern while enacting drastic tax cuts the legislature passed in 2012 and 2013 under the governorship of Sam Brownback, a longtime Republican who took up the tea party cause in force. He’s laid out his “march to zero” plan, which aims to make Kansas an income tax-free state. The state currently has what is essentially a flat tax on incomes over $30,000, with income tax rates scheduled to drop again in 2016 and 2017. They also essentially eliminated taxes on profits for small business owners.

But the severe tax cuts have left Kansas in a lurch, and the state is facing a more than $400 million budget shortfall — significant in a state that spends only an estimated $6.5 billion. Schools are facing a $197 million shortfall. Some have even brought lawsuits against the state, saying that Brownback’s cuts to school funding, which caused dramatic disparities between rich and poor districts, are unconstitutional. The governor then threatened to defund the judiciary if it continued to rule against him.

Kansas legislators have been scrambling to find a way to plug that hole and have even come to a compromise that would raise taxes. The bill passed on Sunday leans heavily on sales and cigarette tax hikes to raise an estimated $420 million, but now the bill is hung up on its final passage, with some Republicans objecting to the changes to the tax code.

The restrictions on TANF benefits faced federal scrutiny. Though states have a lot of leeway in how to distribute benefits after the mid-1990s welfare reform law, the $25 a day limit was a new restriction not seen in states before. If the Department of Health and Human Services found the law too restrictive, Kansas risked more than $100 million in federal funding. Brownback previously indicated he was open to raising the limit in order to comply with federal law. Meanwhile, Kansas welfare rolls have been shrinking despite an increasing poverty rate.

It’s unclear what happens with the Kansas budget, and Brownback met with lawmakers on Tuesday to try to break the deadlock. “He didn’t say he would veto it,” said state Rep. Susan Concannon (R) told local news station KMBC. “He said if we wanted to try something different, something new, to give it a shot. At this point, everything is on the table.”

UPDATE JUN 10, 2015 4:33 PM
As clarified by a member of the legislature, Kansas didn't eliminate the cap, as the piece originally stated, but rather gave Secretary of Children and Families Services the authority to increase or rescind the cap if the Feds find the limit to be too burdensome.
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