A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

FSSA Privatization “Failure”

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Eric Bradner, writing for the Evansville Courier Press, has a good account of the State Budget Committee’s hearing on the privatization contract which transferred handling of welfare applications from the Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) to IBM and Affiliated Computer Systems, Inc. (ACS). (ACS, quite coincidentally, I’m sure, was former FSSA chief, Mitch Roob’s former employer.)

The privatization has cost the state of Indiana a pile of money and has led to chronic complaints of lost documentation and long waiting times. Unlike the former system, there is no dedicated caseworker for applicants, so they’re at the mercy of whoever happens to pick up the phone after they finally get out of automated phone hell.

As I’ve mentioned before, this bureaucracy seems like a design flaw if your goal is to deliver services to Hoosiers in need. On the other hand, the system seems less flawed if your goal is to transfer taxpayer money to preferred associates and to discourage poor people from applying for and receiving benefits. If that’s the goal, then those lost documents and increased wait times seem less like bugs and more like features.

Welfare Eligibility Privatization Causes Problems

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Bryan Corbin, writing for the Evansville Courier Press, has a story on complaints about the Governor’s welfare eligibility “modernization” program. The Governor “modernized” the eligibility process for people seeking Medicaid, food stamps, and the like by turning the program over to a group of vendors led by IBM.

The result has been frequent complaints that the system loses clients’ documents, causes long delays, furnishes incorrect information and is hard for the elderly and disabled to navigate.

Permit me to skeptically suspect that, to the Daniels administration, this is a feature, not a bug. It’s an old insurance trick to limit claims by using a cumbersome bureaucracy to screw those otherwise eligible for benefits.

In the 2009 session that starts Jan. 7, state Rep. Suzanne Crouch of Evansville, may introduce a bill that temporarily would halt the FSSA from rolling out the modernization program to the 33 counties it has yet to reach.

“This bill does not attempt to tell the administration what to do, it does not attempt to do anything other than hold them accountable for what they’ve undertaken,” Crouch, a Republican, said.

Accountability? I thought that was for the little people.

Corbin’s article goes into a lot more detail and captures some of the back and forth between Daniels and the lawmakers who propose to hold him accountable for his decisions. Well worth a read.

Daniels’ Lottery Privatization Hits Road Block

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The feds put the kibosh on Gov. Daniels’ desire to privatize the lottery on account of, well, it’s illegal. The U.S. Department of Justice said states would not comply with federal law if they enter into long-term private management agreements to operate their lotteries.

The ruling said federal law requires that a state exercise actual control over all significant business decisions made by a lottery enterprise and retain all but a minimal share of the equity interest in the profits and losses of the business.

It also said a state had to retain the rights to the trademarks and other unique intellectual property or essential assets of the state’s lottery.

I’m certain, however, that the Governor will remain diligent in his efforts to find other property of the state to sell.