As I and many others predicted when it began, Rick Scott’s pocket-lining law requiring mandatory drug testing for Florida residents receiving public assistance didn’t save any money at all and caught very few actual drug users. The New York Times reports:
Ushered in amid promises that it would save taxpayers money and deter drug users, a Florida law requiring drug tests for people who seek welfare benefits resulted in no direct savings, snared few drug users and had no effect on the number of applications, according to recently released state data…
From July through October in Florida — the four months when testing took place before Judge Scriven’s order — 2.6 percent of the state’s cash assistance applicants failed the drug test, or 108 of 4,086, according to the figures from the state obtained by the group. The most common reason was marijuana use. An additional 40 people canceled the tests without taking them.
Because the Florida law requires that applicants who pass the test be reimbursed for the cost, an average of $30, the cost to the state was $118,140. This is more than would have been paid out in benefits to the people who failed the test, Mr. Newton said.
As a result, the testing cost the government an extra $45,780, he said.
And the testing did not have the effect some predicted. An internal document about Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, caseloads stated that the drug testing policy, at least from July through September, did not lead to fewer cases.
“We saw no dampening effect on the caseload,” the document said.
How entirely unsurprising. Also unsurprising is that this won’t do a damn thing to prevent other legislatures from doing the same thing, using the same arguments.
11 comments
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busterggi
April 20, 2012 at 1:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
But it still succeeded in its real mission – to humiliate & harass people who dared to be poor.
Blondin
April 20, 2012 at 2:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well, in that case they ought to start testing for booze & tobacco, too. In fact, maybe they should start inspecting these sub-human burdens on society to make sure they aren’t spending money on frivolous items like TVs or designer clothing or going to restaurants or movies or bowling alleys… or any of those non-necessities of life the rest of us take for granted.
shouldbeworking
April 20, 2012 at 2:04 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Being elected instantly makes you an expert on everything. If your brilliant plan doesn’t succeed it must because of sabotage by liberals, commits or unionized state works with a vested interest in the status quo.
eric
April 20, 2012 at 2:34 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@1 – I think the real mission in this case was to send money to drug testing companies. IIRC, one was owned and operated by the legislator who proposed the law.
Area Man
April 20, 2012 at 3:17 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Is there any reason why the law can’t be for humiliating the poor and enriching Rick Scott? Greed and malice go together like PB&J.
holytape
April 20, 2012 at 3:22 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
busterggi,
“to humiliate & harass people who dared to be poor.”
I high doubt that the people who pass these laws consider the poor to be people.
Modusoperandi
April 20, 2012 at 4:29 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
From what I hear, they’re bringing in a “workfare” program next. To give them dignity, lazy bums on the dole will have to wear signs that say “Taxi”, and those of wealth and breeding can ride them from place to place.
gshevlin
April 20, 2012 at 4:40 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Generally speaking, you’re an expert on everything while you are running for office. Then when you get into government, you suddenly discover that a significant percentage of your bright ideas that you were yapping about while running for office are not practical, and you then have to slide sideways away from them. That is Level 1 Political Hubris.
Level 2 Political Hubris comprises not discovering any reality after you are elected. This allows you to implement all of the dumb-as-fuck ideas you espoused while campaigning, free of any reality check, and probably to dream up some new super-dumb-as-fuck ideas and implement those also.
John Hinkle
April 20, 2012 at 4:51 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Sounds suspiciously like Big Overspending Government to me. I bet busloads of angry Teabaggers are heading to Florida as I write this.
tommykey
April 20, 2012 at 6:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think the only ones who end up benefiting from these laws are the companies that make the drug testing kits.
John Phillips, FCD
April 21, 2012 at 5:07 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
eric #4, IIRC from TRMS, the governor’s wife is linked to such a company.