Whoahh Patty...Don't be messin' with our NNY way of life...Who says I can'ts be usin' my welfare benefit card for beer, butts or scratch offs....?
Senator Ritchie says that's wrong....but is it ? The sins keep money flowing back into NY coffers...Isn't that the goal ?
RITCHIE: NO WELFARE BENEFITS FOR SMOKES, BOOZE OR LOTTO | New York State Senate
28 comments:
How are they going to enforce this? Or I mean implment this? They chould do stings and arrest the little old lady cashier that sells something forbidden to a customer using a debit card issued by EBT. Or get the evil banks to keep track of what things can be charged to what accounts and fine them when they don't catch something.
Well the sales of Newports and 40's of the malt likker will be plummeting at all of New Yorks finer convenience establishments.
Way to go Senator!
Probably a 1 house bill, but kudos for starting the conversation
The State acting as a guardian on behalf of the taxpayer from whom The State stole the money to begin with.
No welfare program, no welfare misuse.
But then no welfare program would deprive countless thousands of gov't drones of taxpayer funded paychecks.
If the intent of welfare is to assist the poor then how does The State justify the enormous overhead costs?
That is more important to address than booze, lotteries, or tobacco.
I have never seen anyone buy cigarettes, booze or lottery tickets with a benefit card. Some people need to remember that people receiving child support get a card that looks a lot like the benefit card. Child support is not welfare. I did see a woman get hassled by a person behind her in line at a store for buying potato chips and soda with what the woman thought was a benefit card. Turned out to be child support and the user let the nosy woman know it.
Spincycle on full here makes for a great headline and i do like the concept Senator . But c'mon this is hardly the stuff of greatness , nor will it be a game changer of real impact :>)
Rightsize bloated state agencies , commissions , and authorities. Cut redundant operations in ALL levels of publically financed organizations and put SOME REAL teeth into minimum size requirements for Schools and SUNY and begin to SAVE REAL $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Nice racial touch there, Mr Mayor. Can you tell us what the white-to-minority ratio of welfare recipients is in Jefferson County?
Your buddy Doheny must have that available.
Is someone FINALLY waking up to the welfare abuse in this state that is costing us millions. I get so disgusted watching welfare bums using their benefit card to buy better food than I buy, then pay cash for their beer, cigarettes, and lottery tickets. Things have gotten out of control!! GO Patti Richie!!!
This kind of legislation is exactly what Patty Ritchie promotes.. Meaniless, costly and always done to promote one of her three or four writers to write a story about how hard she works..
She promised reform andnothing has changed.. She prmomised our star rebates and nothing has changed.. Shes helping block the minimum wage from being passed. Shes blocking home rule in her home County just to play politics.. Good record Patty keep up the good work for the downstate Republcians.
You are corrct Mayor, it's a viscious cycle; much like our courts system. It's not about what is right or wrong, just keep the money moving.
Yup, good catch 9:14am.
Apparently, by the mayor’s own definition CERTAIN stereotyping falls “within the bounds of good taste.” It also plays well here in Hillbillytown where most of the locals consider it perfectly acceptable and the mayor knows this.
In fact, some will be offended that you would have the audacity to point it out.
Ignorance on parade.
8:50 am,
If you've never seen the welfare users buying ciggies, booze and lottery tickets with cash they've taken off the cards, you ain't looking very hard! They buy a lot of video games, too. Gotta have somethinng to do while the rest of us are working. Ask any store cashier if you want to find out how many of the welfare crowd are abusing their welfare benifits.
Whoa, hold there big fellow. Let’s take a step back and cover a few facts first of all, shall we?
1. The EBT card cannot be used for those purchases, any more than it can be used at McDonalds or any place that sells prepared food... it's for food to be taken home and cooked/consumed. Sen. Ritchie should already know the rules.
2. Pet food cannot be purchased, either.
3. There are abuses I am sure, but allowing them in the first place is the issue. Store clerks must be retrained to tell the customers, "Sorry that is now allowed on the card." Now I know some can game the system. They get their product scanned and then show the EBT card. Rather than rescan them, the store clerk might say, "Go ahead this time."
4. Perhaps the card should be shown in advance before the store clerks scan the products?
There is a big stigma for people with EBT cards (that old "welfare" queen label). People these days are famous for using it around here. Just listen the Mayor's show and hear the "free stuff crowd" bashing people without the facts. I'm a guessin' they ain't never been on food stamps or the new EBT card.
Keep in mind, the rules for the card: basically for LOW-INCOME working people who must qualify for the card and the level of benefits therein ... notice I said "low-income working people" – for the GED crowd, that means they have a job but not a lot of money for food.
Memo for Sen. Ritchie: I wonder if those 3-4 people who ratted out “abusers” really knew what they were seeing when they "reported" this crime to you. You should be ashamed, too.
Now, for the anti-me crowd: go ahead and unload on me. But, come armed with facts. I always try to do exactly that.
The attacks on the less-fortunate and low-income workers are pitiful. They are not free-loaders, and Sen. Ritchie, once again, should know that. Hell, I can’t even use my Navy Visa Card which I’ve had for 35 years to buy a lotto, so I pretty sure one is buying them on an EBT card.
BTW: The do and don’t list is here - FYI
http://www.ehow.com/info_8550616_ebt-card-restrictions.html
Danny the rules are federal law and you know your Communist totalitarian president has a lawsuit against several states for trying to enforce federal laws.
You are flat out wrong about your definition of food for EBT. They can get prepared foods as long as they are not hot and will be taken home for consumption. They can buy soda and cookies and candy and energy drinks too as long as they have nutrition labels on them.
Danny your a typical librul because you want to train the clerks better instead of holding the lawbreaker accountable.
This is what you free stuff people are about. The teapublican makers, out of the goodness of their hearts, have agreed to support lazy people that have too many kids too early in life. The people you call unfortunate. They just want to support them with food instead of luxury discretionary purchases. But that is not good enough for you.
Ritchie would get reelected if her bill said that these welfies cant shop with the working folks. Make 'em shop from 10-12 at nite. Then all you hillbillies wont have to see them.
I don't know about all stores, but where I shop, the cashier scans everything in and when the EBT card is scanned, everything that isn't allowed comes up as a cash sale and the person using the card has to pay for those items or put them back. I would think in this day of technology that all stores could do this.
As Dan Francis said the card is basically for the working poor. But it's just so much fun to hate everyone on welfare, isn't it?? I mean, so much for equality. Booze and smokes no. But would you really deny someone a movie or a little entertainment because he or she is among the working poor??
I doubt many cashiers would risk their job to let someone buy smokes or lottery tickets with an EBT card because almost all stores have video cameras and it would be too easy to catch.
Ritchie should do a little research before she makes herself look stupid. No one saw anyone buy lottery tickets with an EBT card. You can't buy lottery tickets with a credit or debit card. You can only use a card to buy lottery subscriptions. I'm pretty sure all stores are set up so purchases that aren't allowed kick out anything that can't be bought with an EBT card. You can't get cash off them, it has to be a product purchase.
From the article:
"The bill, S.7671, introduced this week, came in response to complaints the Senator received from constituents who witnessed customers using their EBT cards—essentially a debit card that’s preloaded with welfare benefits, and can be used at groceries, supermarkets and a host of other locations—to purchase alcohol, tobacco and even scratch-off lottery tickets."
I don't believe it.
8:58 is wrong. If a retailer uses scanning to ring up everything and attaches the correct departments to each item then that retailer is capable of catching the fraud. But many retailer do not scan and many that do scan, do not classify each item into a department. And there is no universally accepted department definition either. And even if the retailer has the sate of the art set-up, and invents the correct departments, the system is still dependent on someone at headquarters to program the price changes and new items correctly by the hundreds every week.
And all that is useless if they use one of the ATM's that are surcharge free for EBT cards.
Jefferson county List of ATM's for EBT that are surcharge free
Well, I guess I’ll weigh in here. Having worked for the past 28 years in the grocery industry, (the past 12 as a front line manager for a major chain) I can tell you from personal experience I have seen little or no abuse with the EBT cards. Occasionally, a mistake is made but those are few and far in between. Most of the people I see using the EBT cards are honest working class families just trying to feed themselves. You might refer to them as the "truly needy or deserving.”I’m not saying there isn’t some abuse going on; I just don’t see any of it in my job capacity.
Ive gone to stores one on Franklin St, and the other on Factory St. Ive witnessed both places people buying energy drinks(maybe they need it to work) candy bars, potatoe chips, with EBT cards.
28 years of experience doing what? How long have EBT cards even been out here in NYS? A lot less than 28 years. And how do you know what they do with the cash after they take it out of an ATM?
Welfare queens do not go to major grocery stores, they go to the dump within walking distance of the subsidized apartment they live in.
“Welfare queens do not go to major grocery stores, they go to the dump within walking distance of the subsidized apartment they live in.”
You should be ashamed of yourself – talking about Michelle Bachmann that way!
I believe we should make it easier for welfare folks to buy ciggies, beer, lottery tickets, and bath salts with their benefit cards. That way they will die earlier and we won't have to support them as long as we would have otherwise. And they won't be voting either. Oh that's right, with Dannie's system of no id to vote, they can vote long after they're dead.
There is plenty of abuse and here's how. Person "A" has an EBT card and wants a pack of smokes and a sixer of the Beast. Person "B" has cash and needs some groceries. "A" buys for "B" and vice versa. Happens all of the time. EBT card is just like cash, maybe with a reduced face value because it can only be spent on certain things, but it's cash just the same.
“Welfare queens do not go to major grocery stores, they go to the dump within walking distance of the subsidized apartment they live in.”
You should be ashamed of yourself – talking about Michelle Bachmann that way!
If they go to one of the few stores that restricts the purchases they can simply go to an ATM and withdraw the cash. If Ritchie wants to end the abuse, she needs to repeal the ATM feature of the card.
Anon 2:57 - thanks for that input - sadly the others here would rather deal in opinion or naty innuendo - anything except facts.
The less-fortunate/low-income/needy persons are easy targets at these forums, on the radio, and especially from those in elected office - as if those in office didn't have needy/low-income/or less-fortunate citizens in their district.
Shameful that those nasty attitudes prevail and in many caes, domionate the talk.
That's why it's good that some of us can present facts to off-set them - but not always accompishing that task.
2:57,
You have to be joking, right?
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