Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Spending Down the TANF Surplus
The Capitol Monitor has an interesting story about the Governor Strickand’s budget as it relates to TANF spending. The article written by Judy Bird correctly points out that one of the ways that the Governor is funding his proposed budget without tax or fee increases is by spending down the TANF balance that was accumulated during the Taft administration. Each year the federal government gives Ohio an annual TANF grant of $728 million, but the Governor’s budget proposal appropriates $1,037,739,200 in 2008 and $1,085,861,009 in 2009. Over a two-year period the budget appropriates roughly $667 million more in federal TANF funds than we get in our two year grant. This is why the administration says they will have spent the surplus down to $110.1 million by the beginning of SFY 2010.
Of course we have heard these predictions before, and in the past the only thing more plentiful than surplus TANF dollars were ODJFS predictions that the money was already gone or would soon be gone. The thing that is different this year is the fact that the Governor is proposing to appropriate more than they actually receive on a year to year basis. In fiscal years 2004 and 2005 they actually spent considerably less than what they received from the federal government, it wasn’t until fiscal year 2006 that they spent more, and then it was only $18 million more which was merely a drop in the bucket. One question I do have is about the assumptions for fiscal year 2007 TANF Block Grant spending. The Strickland budget estimates that TANF expenditures for 2007 will total $1,027,739,200. This is roughly $235 million more than was appropriated in H.B. 66. I believe it’s reasonable to question the spending estimate for 2007 especially knowing that many of the projects included in the estimate were slow to get started or have consistently been under spent.
There is a lot more to say about the administration’s TANF priorities and observations about how the legislature might respond, but I will leave that for later.
Of course we have heard these predictions before, and in the past the only thing more plentiful than surplus TANF dollars were ODJFS predictions that the money was already gone or would soon be gone. The thing that is different this year is the fact that the Governor is proposing to appropriate more than they actually receive on a year to year basis. In fiscal years 2004 and 2005 they actually spent considerably less than what they received from the federal government, it wasn’t until fiscal year 2006 that they spent more, and then it was only $18 million more which was merely a drop in the bucket. One question I do have is about the assumptions for fiscal year 2007 TANF Block Grant spending. The Strickland budget estimates that TANF expenditures for 2007 will total $1,027,739,200. This is roughly $235 million more than was appropriated in H.B. 66. I believe it’s reasonable to question the spending estimate for 2007 especially knowing that many of the projects included in the estimate were slow to get started or have consistently been under spent.
There is a lot more to say about the administration’s TANF priorities and observations about how the legislature might respond, but I will leave that for later.
