Kansas Limits ATM Withdrawals For Welfare Recipients
If you get public assistance in Kansas you’ll be limited to a $25 withdrawal per day beginning in July.
After slashing income taxes in 2012, the state faces a revenue gap of more than $400 million. Republican Governor Sam Brownback and state legislators are debating how to make up the shortfall. So far they’ve agreed on one way to control how state money is spent. Starting in July, people on the dole will be limited to a single ATM withdrawal of no more than $25 per day. The law also prohibits spending public-assistance cash at movie theaters, swimming pools, and video arcades. Nail salons and tattoo parlors are out, too.
“The primary focus is to get people back to work, because that’s where the real benefit is—getting people off public assistance and back into the marketplace with the dignity and far more income there than the pittance that government gives them,” Brownback said when he signed the Kansas bill into law in April.
Kansas isn’t the only Republican-led state that can’t manage its finances and is taking it out on the poor.
In Arizona, which faces a $1 billion budget shortfall, lawmakers voted on May 18 to limit welfare to a year, the shortest window in the nation. On May 5, Missouri’s Republican legislature overrode Democratic Governor Jay Nixon’s veto to enact a bill that cut thousands of low-income families from aid rolls by reducing how long people can claim cash from five years to fewer than four. Michigan’s GOP-controlled legislature passed a bill on June 2 that strips cash assistance from families with chronically truant children.
StoneyCurtisll June 7th, 2015 at 9:10 am
Never seen an ATM that doles out 5 dollar bills..
Jeffrey Samuels June 7th, 2015 at 9:29 am
don’t worry, they will take the extra five as a fee.
StoneyCurtisll June 7th, 2015 at 12:34 pm
You can take that to the bank~!
(so to speak)
Larry Schmitt June 7th, 2015 at 9:32 am
That jumped out at me too. It’s really a $20 limit, plus the fees. So maybe it’s meant to benefit the banks, which donate to the republicans’ campaigns.
StoneyCurtisll June 7th, 2015 at 12:33 pm
Yep..
The ATM owners are gonna love this…
Suzanne McFly June 7th, 2015 at 10:30 am
I am not seeing what the benefit is to limiting the amount a person can take out. I believe the average amount a person gets with these benefits is $140/mo so its not like they usually take out thousands of dollars and go buy Escalades and 70″ Televisions. Then the Governor tells the press that these people need to focus on jobs, don’t a lot of these people already have jobs? Some are even in the military, and yet his party refuses to sign a damn jobs bill but they espouse how terrible it is for the income disparity we currently have. He can sell that story to his band of idiots all day, the rest of see him for the pile of crap he is.
tracey marie June 7th, 2015 at 11:04 am
The real amount is $20 because you have to withdraw in increments of $10, then most places charge from $1-$3 per withdrawal and the state charges $1 per transaction. At a minimum they may receive $16 and the maximun is $18.
Mainah June 7th, 2015 at 11:06 am
Our ATMs are in increments of $20.00 plus fee.
whatthe46 June 7th, 2015 at 6:04 pm
mine is also 20, but no fee. i only use my own banking atm. also, if i’m needing cash maybe 5 bucks for something, when i pay for my purchases with my card, i get cash back in any amount if i want, there’s no fee.
StoneyCurtisll June 7th, 2015 at 12:32 pm
Exactly~!
robert June 7th, 2015 at 2:28 pm
don’t worry kansas will find a way to get that $25 to you by mail if you complain about the ATMs
tracey marie June 7th, 2015 at 5:34 pm
why would kansas do such a thing when I do not live there and I own a business in another state?
Mainah June 7th, 2015 at 11:03 am
“The number of families receiving cash through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the federal-state aid program that grew out of the 1996 federal welfare reform law, peaked in 1994 at 5.1 million families, according to the Congressional Research Service. It’s since plummeted to 1.5 million at the end of 2014. In Kansas 6,478 families were on welfare at the end of last year, down from 7,553 in 2013. Monthly payments for a family of three range from $386 to $429, depending on a county’s population and cost of living.”
So the whopping 6,478 families are somehow responsible for $400 million dollars? Really? Because if abolishing income tax was suppose to be so fruitful, one would think your state wouldn’t have anyone on the “dole”, as it was so eloquently put.
Dwendt44 June 7th, 2015 at 1:03 pm
Doing away from the income tax means the state(s) must rely on sales taxes for operating funds. That impacts the poor the most. They already are stretched and now the taxes on non food items are increased. What a scam. The rich aren’t worried about sales taxes, especially now that they get a big break in their income taxes.
Mainah June 7th, 2015 at 1:11 pm
Yes. I know this. My degree is in Business Administration. My Governor is trying to
forceimplement this same failed policy. What he fails to realize that even with a 1.1% hike in Sales Tax, that’ll hurt small businesses, is that we don’t have any base to which to offset that shortfall. Sales tax for the year is like 28% of our State’s annual funding. We have no base other than property tax in which to draw from for basic needs for the State. People who own, won’t be able to afford their homes. It’s dangerous. He’s dangerous and those like him that use bullying and hostage taking tactics. That is not democracy.pinballsdoll June 7th, 2015 at 11:04 am
I think they come up with these “controls” as a way of perpetuating the myth that people who are on public assistance have it so much easier than everyone else
johnnybizzoy June 10th, 2015 at 4:57 am
they are taking money away from me that I worked hard for. They should get jobs like I have a job
Mainah June 7th, 2015 at 11:10 am
Oh, and just on a side note … the article says that Arizona is a billion dollars in the hole. And these are the same people who want to run our country? Holy sh*tballs.
cogitoergodavesum June 7th, 2015 at 11:10 am
Does the law specify only ATM withdrawals? Can recipients go to a teller on the first of the month, pay one transaction fee, and withdraw the full amount? I know it’s a nuisance, but otherwise it’s a blatant giveaway to the banks.
Carla Akins June 7th, 2015 at 11:16 am
Yes, it’s for cash withdrawals but the limit is regardless of where the cash is withdrawn. If they use the card at retailers for transactions there is no limit but if the money is needed for something like rent, they would encounter a fee each time. The fee is limited to just under a dollar (.89) but since no ATM offers $5 increments it’s actually limited to $20.
arc99 June 7th, 2015 at 11:15 am
It is pointless to be angry at these right wing politicians.
If the people of Kansas are stupid enough to put these people into office, they are to blame, with my apologies to every resident of the Jayhawk state who voted Democratic. Those Democratic voters are the ONLY people in Kansas who get any sympathy from me.
It would be fascinating if someone did analysis on how many Republican voters at the bottom of the economic ladder will be hurt by this idiotic policy and are still clueless enough to vote Republican. There is an old saying that the big problem with democracy is that the majority of the people will get exactly the government they deserve. The remainder of the populace simply has to suffer. Kansas is the epitome of that axiom.
Their experiment in right wing tax-cutting utopia has exploded in their faces. So what do these right wing Republicans do?
Hey, look at the squirrel, e.g. those devious lazy shiftless poor people. Never mind that the state is falling apart.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2015/05/04/Schools-in-Kansas-closing-early-due-to-800-million-state-budget-deficit/9901430734358/
Schools in Kansas closing early due to $800 million state budget deficit
Mike June 7th, 2015 at 11:41 am
The Brownspot Administration is like a clip from the Keystone Kops.
Like limiting the poor to $25 a day will save money in a state that gave 37% tax cuts to businesses. They’re $400 million short, about to lay off 7k workers Monday, and the best they have is this.
arc99 June 7th, 2015 at 11:50 am
I would also ask Gov. Brownback, exactly how are welfare recipients supposed to get a job when there are no jobs thanks to wrong-headed, incompetent right wing governance?
http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/yael-t-abouhalkah/article18751845.html
The new jobs report for Kansas released Friday just wiped the smile off Gov. Sam Brownback’s face.
The Kansas Labor Information Center reported that total nonfarm employment fell by 2,400 in March.
Overall, Kansas has now gained only 1,900 jobs in the first three months of 2015.
CandideThirtythree June 8th, 2015 at 1:10 am
Everything republicans do is wrong. Not a one of them has been right about anything in decades!
The Democratic governor of Minnesota has raised taxes on the rich and added more new jobs than any republican run state in the last 4 years.
“Hello America. I am Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Mark Dayton.
Although Republicans nearly lost their minds and predicted an economic
disaster, I raised taxes on the wealthy and raised my state’s minimum
wage a few years ago. Today, my state’s economy is creating jobs at a
record pace, unemployment is at a historic low, median income is
skyrocketing, and my state has a billion dollar surplus — which I’m
going to invest in education.”
johnnybizzoy June 10th, 2015 at 4:54 am
http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=customer+service&l=Kansas
rg9rts June 7th, 2015 at 12:33 pm
There must be a dominant grinch gene inherent in gopee lineage
Dwendt44 June 7th, 2015 at 1:00 pm
So now a poor person has to run the the store/quicky mart/bank every day. How far is it from low rent areas of town? Add in bus fare or gasoline costs in addition to the ATM fees, and it really cuts into the cost of living for those that are on the bottom of the economic scale.
whatthe46 June 7th, 2015 at 5:52 pm
well, they get to the atm withdraw 25 (how, i don’t know) then hold off for the next day, because they will need to use that 25 just for gas to get another 25, then go to the store for dinner for the night. then go back the next day, get 25, go to the store for toiletres, that’s the whole 25, so no dinner for that night… by the way, they don’t receive 750 a month, maybe 150 or less, so they won’t be withdrawing 25 a day. this is so sad the way they treat the poor. and what’s worse is that some of those same poor people will continue to vote against their own best interest.
johnnybizzoy June 10th, 2015 at 4:52 am
maybe they can just stop by the store on their way to and from one of the many job interviews they should probably be lining up all the time if they don’t like the stipulations of welfare.
CandideThirtythree June 8th, 2015 at 1:03 am
Whoever wrote this should have said WHY…it is so banks can charge the poor $3.00 every time they take money out on those bank issued cards. This is just another way the rich launder money in the US and steal from the poor.
You can’t pay your electric bill or rent in $25 dollar increments so this is just another way that alien creature in the Governor’s seat will make thousands of families homeless.
johnnybizzoy June 10th, 2015 at 4:49 am
He is not making them homeless – they are making themselves homeless. He is just helping them less.
Jeffrey Samuels June 8th, 2015 at 8:38 pm
25 dollars? How many atms do you know that don’t insist on 10 dollar increments?