EDITORIAL: Maine’s food stamp program merits mass replication

It sometimes feels like our leaders fail us at every turn, so it's refreshing when government does the right thing. Take the state of Maine, for example, with its meaningful steps toward tackling a national policy problem.

In 2000, 17.2 million people in this country received food stamps. That number ballooned to 45.8 million by 2015. Costs have risen dramatically, too, from $20.7 billion in 2000 to $83.1 billion in 2014.

As reported by Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield of The Daily Signal, the fastest growing segment of food stamp recipients is able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) — people between the ages of 18 and 49 who don't have children or other dependents to support but who can work. This segment has grown from 2 million recipients in 2008 to roughly 5 million today, and the growth spurred Maine Gov. Paul LePage to take action.

Gov. LePage recently established work requirements on ABAWDs in his state. If you live in Maine, have no dependents and can work, you are now required to find a job, undergo training or perform community service if you wish to continuing receiving state aid.

There are plenty of job openings for low-skilled workers in Maine, as well as considerable training and community service opportunities. The state has been aggressive in pushing ABAWDs to get with the new program. However, Mr. Rector and Ms. Sheffield noted that most have refused to participate in any training or commit to community service for even the minimum requirement of six hours per week. Those who refused to participate saw their food stamps benefits stop.

After just three months — from December 2014 to March 2015 — Maine's new work policy caused the state's caseload of ABAWDs to drop by a whopping 80 percent, from 13,332 recipients to 2,678.

Further, as the report suggests, the program likely also reduces fraud among those who are on food stamps but have under-the-table employment in which their earnings aren't documented. These recipients often find it difficult to participate in job training or community service while still doing their gray economy work, so they simply choose to drop off the welfare rolls.

Maine's program is an outstanding step toward making sure those who need such aid get it, while also helping them get back to work, and it's better still in combatting fraud and bringing fairness to the taxpayers who fund it. And as the Daily Signal report noted, because the federal government provides 90 percent of food stamp funding, such programs could help all states by curbing food stamp abuse nationwide.

To Nevada's credit, similar efforts have been undertaken with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Nevada has an employment and training mandate, but it's not quite as strict as Maine's, in large part due to the state's still-recovering economy. With Maine's quantified success, any state without such a program would be wise to replicate the reforms of the Pine Tree State.