The genesis of this problem goes back over forty years or so ago.
It started with the government handing off administration of some government benefits to private entities. I first became aware of that when the head of one was also the head of a local church. Yet another of his mistresses came into the law office for help getting child support. It turns out that was a regular thing. The attorney who handled the matter thought the minister was a good guy since he always paid child support and the cases had minimal fuss.
The church put up with it because of the financial ties and the way the money flowed.
Photo by Alena Kry on Pexels.com — a bleak welcome
That sort of thing transitioned about twenty-five to thirty years ago (starting in 1996) to the federal government allowing state governments to get credit for church inputs into welfare. The idea being that if a church added to the amounts distributed, it was fair to allow the state government to get some credit for more effective distributions.
In Utah that means that over 75 million dollars of federal benefits have been channeled into other spending by the State of Utah taking credit for expenditures of the LDS Church.
The Church’s response was that if Utah was going to claim credit, then taxpayers should be able to seek help from the state first and the Church second.
To quote from one article:
What that means is that over the past decade, the Utah State Legislature has been able to get out of spending at least $75 million on fighting poverty that it otherwise would have had to spend under federal law, a review of budget documents shows.
According to the memorandum of understanding between the church and the state, Utah takes credit for a percentage of the hours that church volunteers spend producing and packaging food and clothing for the poor at Welfare Square and similar facilities.
It also claims as state welfare a percentage of the church’s efforts to produce and ship out humanitarian aid in the wake of disasters — aid that may not even help Utahns.
Photo by MART PRODUCTION on Pexels.com — what happens when there is no safety net.
This creates two problems. First, people in need find it very hard to find help and they are bounced between Church and State. The state of Utah rejects 1,300 applications per month or so.
Second, there is no way to gradually work your way out of a disaster that pushes you into needing help. The cliff creates a wall.
