Study: Food-stamp rolls jump 136% in RI, double US increase
September 19th, 2012 at 5:00 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
Enrollment in the federal food stamp program has soared even more quickly in Rhode Island than it has nationally.
The number of residents collecting food stamps grew an astonishing 135.7% from 2007 to 2011, more than double the increase of 69.9% recorded nationally, according to a new study by Ben Senauer, an economics professor at the University of Minnesota, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
But Rhode Island is not an outlier when it comes to how many residents are on food stamps, perhaps because the eye-popping increase coincided with a new push by officials to reach out to those who were eligible.
The study found 12.4% of Rhode Island’s roughly 1 million residents were on food stamps as of 2010, which was below the 13.1% level nationally and third-highest in New England; the rate was 11.3% in Massachusetts. Senauer called the program – now known as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) – “a lifesaver since the economic downturn.”
“Given that the welfare reforms of the late 1990s required recipients to find work fairly quickly, today’s slow recovery and slow job growth have made food stamps increasingly important for low-income Americans,” he wrote. “Until the economy improves significantly, even poor people who have jobs are going to need the lifeline that SNAP offers.” The program has also become an issue in the presidential campaign.
Tags: economy, food stamps, great recession, safety net, social services
Nesi's Notes covers politics and the economy in and around Rhode Island for WPRI.com. (Twitter: 
HMMM, when did that Flat Tax cut for the rich become law?
[...] And here’s a headline that shows another sign that things are getting tougher for the poor here in Rhode Island: Food-stamp rolls jump 136% in RI, double US increase. [...]
High dependence on Govt handouts will continue as long as RI continues to crush businesses (and jobs) with oppressive taxes and regulations.
More Rhode Islanders are get food stamps while the underground economy is flourishing. What is wrong with this picture? This has been going on for years. Too bad Rhode Islanders don’t realize cut spending and taxes, and the tax revenue will go up. The reason it is not worth trying to scam a small amount as it is a large amount. How many of you are paid off the books? How many of you operate a cash business? If Rhode Island has so many poor people why are there so many landscapers, tattoo shops and restaurants? If people are having a hard time making ends meet, these are luxuries?
Is the ProJo really this hard up?
September 18, 2012
tags: projo
by Scott MacKay
The ProJo, which is cutting employees once again, is really penny-pinching with this one. The state’s largest newspaper is ending the `Papers for Patients’ program, according to a letter from Lori Gardnier, director of consumer sales for the ProJo, to hospital officials.
Under the Papers for Patients program, vacationing Journal subscribers could elect to have their newspapers sent to patients who were confined to the hospital. When the vacations were over, the newspapers would revert back to the subscriber. Yes, the newspaper business is in the economic doldrums, but this seems extreme.
Of course, after the A.H. Belo Co. management signed its last cost-cutting contract with the Providence Newspaper Guild, top executives got more than a $1 million in bonuses, despite the plunging company revenues. According to Ted Nesi, the eagle-eyed WRPI-TV blogger, Belo’s ceo, Robert Decherd, got a 25 percent increase to $600,000 annually despite a 45 percent decline in the company’s stock price in 2011. More recently Belo announced a 1-time dividend for December and said the company plans to buy back up to 1 million shares in company stock.
Meanwhile, ProJo management has not given the guild a firm number of how many employees it needs to take the most recent buyout to avert layoffs in Providence. This situation has created high anxiety in the Fountain Street newsroom as journalists worry about how far down the seniority list a layoff could go.
Like this:
Like
Be the first to like this.
from → Uncategorized
← Langevin campaign calls Riley “negative”; releases statement
Grand opening of TIAA-CREF Providence office set for Wednesday →
2 Commentsleave one →
1.
David Ames permalink
September 18, 2012 8:01 pm
Sounds a lot like a Bain Capital operation.
Reply
2.
sue permalink
September 18, 2012 8:25 pm
Despicable.
Reply
Leave a Reply
Enter your comment here…
[...] Columbia …Despite letter's claims, many Americans need food assistanceSyracuse.com (blog)Study: Food-stamp rolls jump 136% in RI, double US increaseWPRI-TV 12 (blog)Urge lawmakers to fund food assistance programAsbury Park PressFlorida [...]
What a surprise. Rhode Island right up there among the leaders in Food Stamp growth. Never mind the failed 1930′s socialist welfare policies… the ideological descendants keep trying the same old stuff. Politicians seeking to justify their inflated egos and power aspirations, keep trying to direct, interfere, and manipulate our work,our savings, our risks, and our income. This is the same crowd that has given us a perpetually red ink postal service, raided social security trust funds, given us a bankrupt Amtrak, given us grossly distorted housing markets through FANNIE MAE, given us ridiculous spending on Solyndra and other crony connected wind energy projects, can’t tell the truth about failed pandering to Islamist regimes and protect Americans abroad….Here is a straight forward idea… Get out of our faces… Get out of our pockets… Get off our backs… And, yes return to emphasizing limits on governments’ reach and let individual and free enterprise be the approach to resolving failed socialistic manipulations.
RI employers put more work on less people.They also discriminate against people over 40 who have been out of work six months.Top concerns for Linc are protecting killers and illegal immigrants.Fox is only coming back to ram gay marriage thru the backdoor.Neither one cares about business or the 60,000 unemployed.Send fox a message in November vote the sleaze out.
Downsized this is reality, most American companies won’t hire a Rhode Islander. You may have to work at a resturant that is a franchise. Bank of America bails out of Rhode Island in 2013. How many more people will be collecting unemployment.
Right on!
Gov Goofy is only worried about the above and getting more Rocky Point land!
He does not get that the ship is sinking………….
THere are no jobs due to the astronomical high taxes, regulations and anti-business climate here in RI. Crowley is a shill for the NEA. Whatever he says it is irrelevant. I should know; I am a teacher and I have come to the realization that my union leadership only cares about power for themselves. They are leaches.
Our state is decaying; foreclosures everywhere; more people struggling to stay in their homes and more on food stamps. You watch though: Gordon will make gay marriage the priority this session. We must get balance. VOTE THE BUMS OUT… every last one of them.
seizing the station fire property seems to be a high priority right now.