New DPW Secretary Blames Rendell for Welfare Spending Increase

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As you know the new Gov of Pennsylvania Tom Corbett plans to reduce my salery. His pick for Secretary of Public Gary Alexander gave his view of what he plans for the Department of Public Welfare.

Rising demand in Pennsylvania for social services during the recession and the spiraling cost of health care has driven up the agency's budget by about 70 percent in a decade. One in six Pennsylvanians is now covered by Medicaid, the 45-year-old federal program created to help states pay for medical and long-term care for the poor and disabled.

You can tell that a new sheirff is in town. Check out this statement.

Alexander, who will manage many of Pennsylvania's services for the poor, elderly and disabled, told senators in a packed Appropriations Committee hearing that the mantra for case workers under Rendell was "when in doubt, give it out" or "close your eyes and authorize" — statements he repeated to a House committee later Wednesday.
"That is stopping," Alexander told senators. "I told the workers, 'That should happen no more.'"

Mr. Alexander proceeded to blame the Rendell Adminstration for the increase in spending in the Department of Public Welfare.

also contended that the administration of the Republican governor's predecessor, Democrat Ed Rendell, practiced gross mismanagement. Former top Rendell aides said such statements prove that Corbett administration officials are either lying to conceal their true aims to slash health care or don't know what they're talking about

It appears that DPW is going after Medicaid to satisfy a political agenda where the well-connected like the gas drillers are not taxed but the social safety net is.
We will have to see how far they go with this. As for our contract which is up for negations. The Commonwealth has not set ANY dates to start negations. The Commonwealth has presented their proposals to AFSME and it is not pretty.

As we expected, the commonwealth has targeted everything financial in the contract and is demanding major concessions on wages, healthcare, scheduling, overtime, leave retiree healthcare, equalization, work-related injuries, mileage and Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). They also propose random drug testing and elimination of use of tobacco products. Please realize these are the initial proposals and will be negotiated until we reach an end result.

Well, stay tuned!