Lawmakers Declare War On Welfare Fraud Say Reforms Need Tougher Policing, Bill Would Keep Out Neighboring Needy

Alarmed by stories of lucrative scams on the state tab, Washington legislators are rushing to give broad police powers to welfare fraud investigators.

The bill, which cleared the House last week, was prompted by accounts of welfare families coming from Idaho and Oregon to take advantage of Washington’s generous public assistance.

The bill would create the Office of Chief Investigator, charged with cutting fraud in Department of Social and Health Services programs.

Arming investigators with the power to execute search warrants and issue subpoenas, as the bill proposes, would help them crack down on people suspected of “ripping off the state,” said Rep. Marc Boldt, a Vancouver Republican.

Welfare reforms, launched last July, make tougher fraud enforcement a necessity, said Boldt, who wrote the bill.

He fears Washington’s benefits - 11th highest in the country - and its five-year limit on getting welfare are drawing poor families from neighboring states. Idaho and Oregon offer smaller welfare checks and limit benefits to two years.

“This legislation will ensure that welfare benefits are extended to the needy and not stolen by the greedy,” Boldt said.

The bill now heads to the Senate, with a good chance at passage.

A Spokane couple recently pleaded guilty to first-degree theft for cheating the state out of $75,000 in welfare benefits over five years.

While on the dole, Timothy Ward and Paula Gano ran the Positively Tooney business in the Flour Mill and enrolled their kids in an expensive private school, according to court documents. On welfare forms, they claimed to be destitute.

Overpayments to welfare recipients cost the state nearly $10 million in 1996, according to DSHS.

Welfare investigators refer 80 to 100 cases a month to state and federal prosecutors for criminal prosecution, said Jennifer Boharski, deputy director of the division of fraud investigations.

Stealing more than $250 is a felony.

Strict work requirements under WorkFirst, Washington’s new welfare system, help investigators. Previously, the most common fraud involved recipients not reporting employment income.

“With WorkFirst, hopefully those won’t slip through the cracks anymore,” Boharski said.

Giving investigators authority to execute search warrants should speed up fraud investigations, said Pend Oreille County Prosecutor Tom Metzger. Because such investigations require extensive documentation, prosecutors often get the cases two years after the fraud was committed, Metzger said.

Boldt’s theory of welfare migration is popular in the Legislature, but controversial among researchers.

National studies show poor families usually move to be near family or job opportunities. But that doesn’t happen very often because of the expense involved.

Welfare migration “is a political argument which has no basis in reality,” said Jerry Sheehan of the American Civil Liberties Union.

There’s been no statewide influx, Washington welfare officials say. For example, so few North Idaho families have made the short trip to Newport, Wash., that the welfare office there stopped counting.

Instead, welfare rolls are shrinking faster than anticipated. About 84,000 families were on assistance in November. The state hoped that by 1999 the number would be done to 85,000.

, DataTimes