Ohio.com editorial
Ohio.com...
Targeted response
November 30, 2011 

Late in the tenure of Ted Strickland and his team, the state adjusted its rule for tracking down overpayments to welfare recipients. It did so to achieve consistency with federal regulations. The new rule called for recouping all overpayments going back 10 years — and beyond. In recent weeks, as the notices of overpayment first started appearing in mailboxes and complaints readily followed, the state learned what a colossal misjudgment had been made. 

On Monday, John Kasich got it right, moving to repair the error of his predecessor. The governor stressed that if the overpayment stems from fraud on the part of the recipient, the state will go back “for 100 years to get the money back for taxpayers.” And if the circumstances are more complicated? He drew important distinctions. 

The governor emphasized that short of fraud, the state will not seek to recoup overpayments that go back 10 years or more. For starters, such an effort lacks practicality, more resources expended in the chase than ultimately recovered. 

The rule set in motion by Strickland also carried the appearance of callousness, the state coming to collect even if the error was its own.

That is the element Kasich sensibly rejects. “When the state of Ohio screws up,” he told reporters, “We ought not to be punishing the citizens, no matter who they are.” He wants the Department of Job and Family Services to examine whether there is a way to separate those who received overpayments due to government errors and thus avoid the feel of a shakedown triggered essentially by a “bureaucratic blunder.” 

The hope is, the state will be able to isolate those cases. If not, the situation calls for flexibility, if federal compliance allows — fraud pursued, otherwise staying away from a mean-spirited approach. Part of the challenge, surely, involves the far-flung way that Ohio handles welfare and related programs, counties largely in charge of the operations. If this experience invites streamlining and other cost-effective improvements, then it will begin to deliver value. 

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