From: "Bryan Long, Better Georgia"
Subject: Gov. Deal's Half-Million-Dollar a Week Failure
When it comes to expensive, frustrating and broken websites for government programs, the President's got nothing on Gov. Nathan Deal.
Georgia taxpayers are shelling out nearly half a million dollars a week just in overtime pay to fix Gov. Deal's broken system for Georgia's neediest families - those applying for help to feed their families.
And, what does Gov. Deal think about this problem?
He told 11Alive's Rebecca Lindstrom that, despite a November letter from the federal government warning that unless the state takes corrective action, $75 million in funding could be in jeopardy, he was unaware of the scope of the problem until recently:
"I'd only become aware that it was of that magnitude just fairly recently."
Gov. Nathan Deal, March 14, 2014
WATCH: DFCS spending $470,000 week in OT to fix food stamp backlog
For months, Georgia's neediest families have found it almost impossible to apply for food stamps.
They've often waited on the phone for hours only to be disconnected.
Those who were lucky enough to have internet access got repeated error messages on the website. And thousands of Georgians who already qualified for assistance were accidently kicked off the program. In early March, DFCS officials acknowledged a 100,000 case backlog.
Half a million tax dollars each week in overtime costs.
$75 million of federal funds in jeopardy.
Thousand of families in crisis.
And Gov. Nathan Deal is asleep at the wheel - again - during a preventable crisis.
Sound familiar? It should.
Ignoring problems until they become a crisis that threatens the health and safety of Georgia families and costs taxpayers millions is an all-too-typical pattern for Gov. Deal.
This time, because the governor's appointees invested in an out-dated, insufficient system to process applications for food stamps, Georgia taxpayers are now on the hook for nearly half a million dollars a week in overtime cost alone for the 2,000 DFCS employees who are struggling to fix the mess.
Despite spending nearly a half million dollars per week, callers are still left holding for hours and more than 44% of the calls still go unanswered.
Not being able to get their calls through is more than an inconvenience for Georgia's 1.9 million recipients of food stamps. Getting cut off means going hungry or scrambling to get help from local charities - or both. Of those who qualify for food stamps in Georgia, 52% are families with children.
Nearly a quarter of those receiving food stamps are 6 years old or younger.
The media has been reporting on this growing crisis for months.
We don't know why the State of Georgia invested in a technology boondoggle, but we know, from his own mouth, that Gov. Deal just wasn't paying attention. Now, instead of creating more problems for needy Georgians caught up in this crisis, Gov. Deal should wake up, pay attention and stop wasting our tax dollars.
Call Governor Deal's office today. Tell Gov. Deal that instead of making it even harder on Georgia's neediest families, he should fix the system his political appointee broke. And, after you call, let us know how it went. Call now.
Sincerely,
Executive Director
Better Georgia
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