Missouri Audit Flags Suspicious SNAP Benefit Use by Deceased, Out-of-State Recipients
Connecting state and local government leaders
STATE AND LOCAL ROUNDUP | San Francisco’s unresolved mayoral race … N.C. governor vetoes budget plan … and a mysterious Indiana jailhouse substance.
Here are state and local government stories that caught Route Fifty’s attention ...
- Kansas City, Missouri: After deploying “new investigative techniques and computer enhancements,” Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway said that a review of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits had flagged suspicious transactions from “out-of-state use of EBT cards issued in Missouri” and deceased recipients. A spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Social Services noted that out-of-state EBT transactions aren’t necessarily illegal—they’re required for interoperability among states—but the department is looking more closely to identify the impermissible out-of-state use. [KCUR 89.3 / Kansas City Public Media]
- San Francisco, California: In the race for San Francisco mayor, former California state Sen. Mark Leno held a narrow lead over Board of Supervisors President London Breed on Wednesday. A winner may not be known for a few days as uncounted ballots are tallied. Stay tuned ... [KNTV / NBC Bay Area]
With a comfortable margin, Bay Area voters appeared to approve a regional transportation measure that will gradually increase bridge tolls to fund transit and other transportation improvements across eight counties. Among the projects that would be funded: acquiring new rail cars for the Bay Area Rapid Transit and San Francisco Muni light-rail systems, extending BART to downtown San José and into Silicon Valley, an expansion of CalTrain into the Transbay Terminal in downtown San Francisco, and more ferry service. Strongest support came from in San Francisco and Santa Clara County, where Regional Measure 3 won 65 percent and 61 percent respectively. [San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate; Regional Measure 3]
- Raleigh, North Carolina: Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the GOP-controlled legislature’s budget proposal on Wednesday, saying the $23.9 billion plan “doesn’t cut it,” adding that: "Republican legislators not only ignored the message that those teachers brought, they had the audacity to claim that the legislature had done enough for public education. They boasted about a budget that failed our schools, our teachers and, most importantly, our students." [@NCCapitol / WRAL]
- Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: By the fall, Pennsylvania state agencies that are under the governor’s perview will no longer ask about a job candidate’s salary history during the hiring process. Gov. Tom Wolf signed an executive order on Wednesday that would bar the practice, which he said “traps women in a cycle of being underpaid, causing them to disclose previous wages which may have been significantly lower than they should have been.” [Billy Penn]
- Juneau, Alaska: The Alaska state government is suing Turo, a car-rental website that allows people to advertise and rent out their car, after the San Francisco-based company “refused to provide records the state needs to determine the tax liability for the company and car owners.” [Anchorage Daily News]
- Providence, Rhode Island: The state government may have to pay more than $4 million after lawyers for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation failed to respond to a multimillion-dollar claim from a contractor working on a major state bridge project, the Providence Viaduct for Interstate 95. [The Providence Journal]
- Fort Wayne, Indiana: Officials at the Allen County Jail said they may never know what the mysterious substance was that sickened four confinement officers on Tuesday when smoke emerged from a jail cell toilet covered by a draped towel. [Journal Gazette]
- Fort Collins, Colorado: Local officials said they spent $20,000 cleaning up 260 homeless and transient camps in Fort Collins’ natural areas. Clean-up crews often encounter “potentially dangerous items, like needles, glass, alcohol, drugs and human waste.” [Coloradoan]
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive’s Route Fifty and is based in Seattle.
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