In Pa. budget fight, would cutting welfare lessen the impact of cuts to education?

HARRISBURG - Cutting welfare to save higher education: How much would it really save?

The corridors of the Capitol were reverberating this week with chants of students and teachers ("We are . . . Penn State!") decrying the deep cuts Gov. Corbett wants to make in aid to state-funded universities. So it made sense for the brain trust of the House's new Republican majority to give serious consideration to somehow softening those blows.

And for one brief shining moment, that brain trust seemed to have it figured out: save millions by rooting out fraud and waste in the welfare department. Use the savings to put back some of the aid Corbett wants to take from the big "state-related" universities (Pennsylvania State, Temple, Lincoln, Pittsburgh) and 14 smaller state-supported schools such as West Chester and Kutztown.

Problem is, the House Republicans are still doing the math on just how much money their plan to root out welfare waste will actually save.

That became evident Wednesday as they stood together at a news conference touting a package of bills cracking down on welfare fraud. They acknowledged that the short-term savings would be "minimal."

When reporters pressed them about how such "minimal" savings would help the higher education cause, House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny) quickly stepped in to point out that the Auditor General's Office had estimated that eliminating welfare fraud could save the state $400 million.

By the time the news conference was over, the Republicans were saying their proposals could free up "hundreds of millions" in taxpayer money.

But the bottom line about such projected savings is that no one knows the bottom line just yet.

The House GOP package includes proposals to put photos on welfare benefit cards, run names through 19 databases to check if applicants are eligible for benefits, require drug felons applying for benefits to take random drug tests, and reduce abuse in a program that helps get people to and from medical appointments, pharmacy visits, and methadone clinics.

In his blueprint for the next fiscal year, Corbett proposed eliminating $625 million, or 52 percent of state aid, to the various state-supported universities. House Republicans, as well as their counterparts in the Senate, have said they will restore some of that funding. Democrats have, too. But the devil is in the details, and everyone differs on the how.

Democrats have pushed an agenda that includes a mix of cuts and new revenue; a tax on natural gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale is high on their list. But Corbett and his fellow Republicans are in effect dealing from a smaller deck: they ran for office on a promise to not raise any taxes. So they have focused almost exclusively on slashing spending.

Earlier in the week, Turzai pledged that the GOP would stick with Corbett's proposed $27.3 billion spending limit, but would fight for switching some of that money around.

Enter cuts to the Department of Public Welfare.

Though Corbett was widely expected to slash and burn the welfare budget, his proposal largely spared it. Now, GOP legislators want to mine it for money to be used for higher education. That might cut down on the collegians chanting in the corridors.

And who could blame the Turzai team for looking to whack welfare? It eats up an $11 billion slice of that $27.3 billion budget pie.

But social-service advocates know how to chant, too. They argue that the magnitude of detectable welfare fraud is just not enough to generate great savings. Answers on every applicant's questionnaire are already cross-checked against a dozen databases.

Plus, proposals requiring random drug tests for some and photo IDs for all would cost some money.

"The proponents of these bills have taken their eyes off the ball," said Michael Froehlich, a staff attorney at Community Legal Services, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that advocates for poor and low-income residents. "These bills would be very costly to implement, and do little to save taxpayers money."

Steve Miskin, Turzai's spokesman, begged to differ. He promised last night that the full details of the Republcans' proposed welfare cuts would be forthcoming.

"It's guaranteed," he said. "There will be savings."