By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
Or perhaps they should be removed from office for dereliction of duty because our state treasury is holding enough surplus cash to pay that $106 million monthly tab for about three years running.
That’s right. The budget reserve trust fund also known as the “rainy day fund” has something like $3.7 billion on deposit and the monthly cost of SNAP for about 600,000 Kentuckians of all ages is only $106 million.
Gov. Andy Beshear has declared a state of emergency and ordered the release of $5 million in state funds to help food banks deal with emergency needs while the federal government remains on lockdown caused by political gridlock in Congress and the White House.
Taking any more money than the $5 million from the General Assembly’s gigantic piggy bank would require formal appropriations by the lawmakers themselves. However, our Republican supermajority Senate and House members don’t seem too interested in protecting the children, parents and elderly who cannot buy all of their groceries for a variety of legitimate reasons.
SNAP, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is what we used to call food stamps. Nationally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture spends about $8 billion each month to help feed an estimated 40 million Americans with lower incomes.
Our governor also has joined governors in two dozen other states in a federal lawsuit to force President Trump to release those funds. That is admirable but could take months to settle with all of the other litigation already headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
About one in every eight Americans receive food stamps through SNAP, for an average of $187 in benefits every month. How many of us could feed one person on such a modest amount?
Funding SNAP is clearly a federal obligation, but our state government certainly has enough money on hand to pay for at least a month or two. After all, doesn’t all of that money really belong to the citizens of Kentucky?
Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com.
