Jake Davison

Many long-overdue, common-sense reforms have been passed and signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder and the Republican Legislature this year. These include the Emergency Financial Manager law, tax reform, teacher tenure reform and the lifting of the arbitrary charter school cap. One reform that has hardly been touched, however, is drug testing of welfare recipients.

State Representative Jeff Farrington (R-Utica) earlier this month introduced House Bill 5223 which would do just that. HB 5223 has been referred to the Committee on Families, Children and Seniors chaired by State Representative Kenneth Kurtz (R-Coldwater), where it currently sits.

The Department of Human Services (DHS), under the fearless leadership of former State Supreme Court Chief Justice Maura Corrigan, is still in the “early process” of creating the exact screening policy, but has determined such a policy is certainly feasible. The process may begin by only targeting “likely” drug users – those who appear at DHS offices under the influence of drugs.

Urinalysis can cost between $25 and $44 per test, while hair follicle analysis can cost anywhere from $75 to $150 for each individual test. Many, like me, think this cost should be deducted directly from the benefit payments of welfare beneficiaries, since keeping them off or getting them off of illegal drugs is in itself a major benefit.

Similar legislation was passed and signed into law during the administration of Gov. John Engler. This was during the era in which the Department of Social Services was radically and correctly renamed the Family Independence Agency (before the Jennifer Granholm administration watered it back down to “Department of Human Services”). A pilot program worked successfully for several weeks, but was then struck down by the courts for dubious reasons.

The liberal court claimed the policy was “discriminatory” against welfare recipients, a heart-rending accusation for some. Since one assumes that all sides of the political spectrum believe that welfare should be a hand-up and not a hand out, removing a key obstacle to employment, the use of illegal drugs, would be an obvious thing for DHS to do while they go about the business of handing out taxpayer dollars earned by those who actually work for a living.

State Rep. Ken Horn (R-Saginaw) told the Saginaw News this month that “just like every other important policy decision, we just need to act cautiously. This is an important issue, a popular issue and we want to make sure we’re on the right track, and make sure we’re not stepping on any landmines with anything we do.” One of the landmines he is certainly trying to avoid is the law being struck down by the courts again.

The leaders nationally on this issue are Missouri and Florida, both of which recently enacted such legislation. It is time that the State of Michigan do the same, for the benefit of taxpayers, tax takers and their children.

© 2011 North Star Writers Group

Jake Davison is a North Star Writers Group columnist and President of Advantage Associates, a Michigan-based campaign consulting and public relations firm. Jake can be reached at jd@youradvantage.org.

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