Committee reluctantly accepts aid to put food stamp applications online
NORWICH – Financial leaders narrowly agreed Thursday to accept a $25,000 state bonus for the Chenango County Department of Social Services due to stipulations regarding its use.
New York State rewarded DSS with the gift for having a low rate of error last year within its food stamp distribution program. The bonus is restricted, however, to making it easier for people to apply for food stamps, Commissioner Bette Osborne said, particularly on the Internet.
“The governor is steering away from face-to-face interviews for food stamps and toward more ways for people to apply for them,” she said. The Commissioner met with two county committees this week to outline her plan for using the bonus.
Osborne recommended using the bonus to make the county’s website capable of processing food stamp applications that are available on the state’s website. She suggested that it might also be used for related technical assistance and computer equipment needs.
Town of Lincklaen Supervisor Wayne C. Outwater asked if the state assumes that people on food stamps have computers.
Osborne said her department already receives e-mails from customers and individuals seeking services.
“You don’t have to discuss people’s problems, just punch in numbers on the phone for food stamps?” Alton B. Doyle, R-Guilford, asked.
Osborne agreed that the bonus’ end result – more phone requests and online applications for food stamps – will make it more difficult “to get the appropriate impressions from people” that are normally used to determine need.
“It will be difficult in the beginning,” she said.
Doyle also asked Osborne about the level of food stamp fraud in the county. Osborne said there were more individuals who needed food stamps in the county and weren’t getting them, than those who were getting them, but shouldn’t be.
Town of Pharsalia Supervisor Dennis Brown voted against accepting the state’s allocation. He pointed to approximately $160,000 in state funding for social services programs that Chenango County’s taxpayers could pick up next year if Governor Eliot Spitzer’s 2008 budget proposal passes. The amount is based on Osborne’s owns estimates compared to a report from the New York State Association of Counties.
“Send the money back to the governor and tell him we are not part and parcel of his plan,” Brown said.
Finance Chairman Lawrence Wilcox, R-Oxford, cast the committee’s tie- breaking vote to accept the allocation. Brown and Doyle were opposed. Harry W. Conley, R-Sherburne, and Outwater voted for it.
New York State rewarded DSS with the gift for having a low rate of error last year within its food stamp distribution program. The bonus is restricted, however, to making it easier for people to apply for food stamps, Commissioner Bette Osborne said, particularly on the Internet.
“The governor is steering away from face-to-face interviews for food stamps and toward more ways for people to apply for them,” she said. The Commissioner met with two county committees this week to outline her plan for using the bonus.
Osborne recommended using the bonus to make the county’s website capable of processing food stamp applications that are available on the state’s website. She suggested that it might also be used for related technical assistance and computer equipment needs.
Town of Lincklaen Supervisor Wayne C. Outwater asked if the state assumes that people on food stamps have computers.
Osborne said her department already receives e-mails from customers and individuals seeking services.
“You don’t have to discuss people’s problems, just punch in numbers on the phone for food stamps?” Alton B. Doyle, R-Guilford, asked.
Osborne agreed that the bonus’ end result – more phone requests and online applications for food stamps – will make it more difficult “to get the appropriate impressions from people” that are normally used to determine need.
“It will be difficult in the beginning,” she said.
Doyle also asked Osborne about the level of food stamp fraud in the county. Osborne said there were more individuals who needed food stamps in the county and weren’t getting them, than those who were getting them, but shouldn’t be.
Town of Pharsalia Supervisor Dennis Brown voted against accepting the state’s allocation. He pointed to approximately $160,000 in state funding for social services programs that Chenango County’s taxpayers could pick up next year if Governor Eliot Spitzer’s 2008 budget proposal passes. The amount is based on Osborne’s owns estimates compared to a report from the New York State Association of Counties.
“Send the money back to the governor and tell him we are not part and parcel of his plan,” Brown said.
Finance Chairman Lawrence Wilcox, R-Oxford, cast the committee’s tie- breaking vote to accept the allocation. Brown and Doyle were opposed. Harry W. Conley, R-Sherburne, and Outwater voted for it.
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