Criminal Rick Scott(R) and Florida Conservatives Are Wasting Tax Dollars and Trampling Liberty

Criminal Rick Scott(R) and Florida Conservatives Are Wasting Tax Dollars and Trampling Liberty

Required drug tests for people seeking welfare benefits ended up costing taxpayers more than it saved and failed to curb the number of prospective applicants, data used against the state in an ongoing legal battle shows.

The findings — that only 108 of the 4,086 people who took a drug test failed — are additional ammunition for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which sued the state and won a temporary ban on the drug-testing program in October, said ACLU spokesman Derek Newton.

Attorneys for the state immediately appealed the ban, and will face off against the ACLU again at the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta and the U.S. District Court in Orlando in coming months.

The costs and benefits of the law — and the outcome of the court case — could reverberate nationwide. This week, Georgia passed its own drug welfare law.

Since Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill into law last year, 25 states have considered similar legislation, Newton said.

Data about the law’s cost may impact the court of public opinion, but Jenn Meale, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office, said it won’t play a role in the legal proceedings.

That’s because ACLU’s case rests on whether the law violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens against "unreasonable searches" by the government.

"Any costs associated with the program are irrelevant to the analysis of whether the statute is constitutional," Meale said.

Of the 4,086 applicants who scheduled drug tests while the law was enforced, 108 people, or 2.6 percent, failed, most often testing positive for marijuana. About 40 people scheduled tests but canceled them, according to the Department of Children and Families, which oversees Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, known as the TANF program.

The numbers, confirming previous estimates, show that taxpayers spent $118,140 to reimburse people for drug test costs, at an average of $35 per screening.

The state’s net loss? $45,780.

"That’s not counting attorneys and court fees and the thousands of hours of staff time it took to implement this policy," Newton said.

The law also didn’t impact the number of people who applied for benefits.

Conservatives are for small government? One of the biggest scams ever perpetuated on the American people. Thanks to conservatives every American has less freedom today than they had 15 years ago. And everyday they think of new legislation to intrude government into people's personal lives.

Conservatives should know about redistributing income, their policies make sure the nation's financial capital is redistributed from workers to lazy corporate executives - CEOs at top companies earned 380 times the average worker's income in 2011

What is CISPA and why it is the newest threat to internet access and privacy

Every major economic downturn in the USA has been due to conservative supply side economics. Yet they keep thinking the public has such a short term memory they can try them again every few years. Time to stop the conservative fantasy Ferris wheel and move on.