Kasich cancels effort to get back overpayments

COLUMBUS — Gov. John Kasich said Monday that he was surprised to learn that the state was aggressively going after welfare recipients for overpayments made more than a decade ago.

The governor put a stop to the plan late last week after he saw a newspaper headline.

“When the state of Ohio screws up, we should not be punishing the citizens, no matter who they are,” Mr. Kasich said.

Mr. Kasich noted that the plan to look back beyond 10 years for overpayments was initiated in December before he took office. The state will continue to seek repayments from Ohioans who were paid more than they were entitled to receive less than 10 years ago, although the governor said he has doubts that even that should take place if the overpayment occurred because of government error.

“I would say no,” he said. “That’s my feeling on it. I don’t know what the federal rules are. … When the government overpays somebody, for the government to go back and punish somebody … that’s the ultimate bureaucratic blunder. I wouldn’t favor that, but there are many federal rules and regulations. If only they would set us free, it would work out better.

“My feeling is, isn’t it typical of the government that they make a mistake and then they blame you for it,” Mr. Kasich said. “It makes no sense at all.”

The Department of Job and Family Services lifted the 10-year limit on how far it could go back to recover money mistakenly paid to welfare recipients, regardless of whether the error was the recipient’s fault. The department recently sent out some 21,000 notices seeking about $24 million, 9,000 of which, worth $11 million, were for periods beyond the standard 10 years and would no longer be allowed under the newly revised policy.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture lifted its 10-year limit last year for food stamps only, and the state will continue to go after overpayments under that program, no matter how old they are. There are no similar federal restrictions on the cash assistance program, according to Ben Johnson, spokesman for the Department of Job and Family Services.

Money repaid by those who received cash assistance overpayments more than 10 years ago will be refunded, Mr. Kasich said. “I tell you honestly I was very unhappy we didn’t get ahead of this,” he said.

Phil Cole, executive director of the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies, was not surprised by the state’s reversal.

“If it’s fraud, go after it because it was illegal,” he said. “But when the governor said that if it’s the state that screws up, don’t punish the citizen, he’s right. … You don’t go after somebody who already lives in poverty. They don’t have it.”

The governor also noted that he is working with a group to roll back some “collateral sanctions” imposed on people convicted of certain felonies that can stand in the way years later of their getting professional licenses and can prevent them from holding certain jobs.

“We had prosecutors in that room who really weren’t thrilled with [recently passed] sentencing reform who probably aren’t going to be thrilled with this … “ Mr. Kasich said. “This is a sensitive issue, and baby steps will be a significant improvement.”

He said the move to reduce penalties that, for example, might prevent someone with a nonviolent felony on his record from getting a commercial driver’s license to work as a trucker, is an effort to reverse a pendulum that had swung too far.

“There was a time when there was a judgment that judges were not being tough enough,” Mr. Kasich said. “So we slapped in the determinate sentences and limited the discretion of judges. And now we look at that and say that some of this went too far …

“Was it a mistake to do that? Yes,” he said. “Sometimes legislation gets put in at a time when there’s a political firestorm going, and the next thing you know there’s some things done that shouldn’t have been done.”

Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.