Legislation proposed by the House Health Committee would end a $200 per month general cash benefit to the state’s poorest citizens.

But the bill’s supporters say the benefit program lacks oversight and was not funded in the budget.

House consideration of the proposal Wednesday produced many amendments, including some that would preserve General Assistance to human trafficking victims and disabled veterans.

However, all the amendments were voted down or withdrawn.

A final vote was not taken on the bill.

As of February, 43 people in Blair County received General Assistance benefits, Gov. Tom Wolf’s communications director Ali Fogarty said.

The General Assistance benefit program was resurrected under Wolf and started issuing payments again in November after the state Supreme Court overturned a law that had ended the program seven years ago. Gov. Tom Corbett and Republicans during his administration saw the program was rife with abuse and little accountability.

The General Assistance cash benefit program ended on Aug. 1, 2012. The state-funded program paid a cash benefit to individuals who did not qualify for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or Supplemental Security Income.

The court recently struck down the law that ended the program only on procedural grounds, supporters of the bill stress.

House Bill 33 of 2019, authored by state Rep. George Dunbar, R-Westmoreland, would re-enact the elimination of the program.

“The GA cash program helps some of the lowest-income and most vulnerable Pennsylvanians,” Fogarty stated.

People who qualify for GA cash assistance are disabled, individuals in treatment for a substance use disorder and those caring for an adult or child with a disability, among others.

To qualify, an individual must have a net income that is less than the cash grant available, which is $205 a month in Blair County, according to Fogarty.

“GA cash is likely the only source of cash assistance these individuals receive,” she said. “The Wolf Administration does not support any changes that could make circumstances more challenging for these Pennsylvanians.”

After the Supreme Court overturned the previous law, the state Department of Human Services began operating the program, despite it not being funded in the current budget, according to a memo Dunbar attached to the bill.

“Without this legislation, the cost of this program — totaling roughly $150 million in its last year of operation — will crowd out other important spending priorities that must be addressed in the coming fiscal year,” the memo by Dunbar states.

State Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Hollidaysburg, had some reservations about the bill Wednesday but said there are surely other worthy causes for $150 million.

“There are so many asks for more money here that I’ve been approached about,” Gregory wrote in an email.

“Some asks are simply emails from groups statewide. Some asks are more personal and close to home like struggling libraries in my district or county agencies like human services, or school districts, dairy farmers or so on. All make compelling cases with their asks.”

Gregory said he has heard from young overdose survivors about the need for funding to support programs that provide for adolescent addiction and even the idea of recovery high schools.

“So you ask do I have other places for that money? Sure I do,” Gregory stated. “But the difference is all of those asks I mentioned would need to be accountable for how the money is spent and what is the return on the taxpayers’ money,” he said. “My understanding is, this assistance money is not being accounted for well enough to satisfy oversight concerns. It needs to be.”

State Rep. Lou Schmitt, R-Altoona, supports the bill strongly.

“This is about people of 79th District. They are not in favor of state government handing out welfare to people without any accountability whatsoever,” he said. “Seventy percent of the people receiving this assistance are single males, according to the bill sponsor George Dunbar. This is welfare money that the governor said last year we will hand out without any accountability. Well, it hasn’t existed since 2012, and I haven’t heard anyone screaming that people are dying without it.”

Schmitt said Wolf is wrong to push for the General Assistance program.

“Legislators are the ones tasked to support it,” Schmitt said. “He will not impose this sort of program on the taxpayers of Pennsylvania.”

Mirror Staff Writer Russ O’Reilly is at 946-7435.