State lawmakers say local governments could save a lot of money if they could keep just a fraction of the money they save in their welfare fraud investigations.
Instead of that money going to the state or federal government, as it does now, they’re proposing a bill to keep that money here in our local communities.
This could be a lot of money as welfare fraud may be a whole lot bigger than many think.
Take a look at the caseload the last few years.
In 2012, the Brown County Sheriff’s Office had 178 arrests or cases investigated.
That went up to 255 in 2013 and 190 last year.
They’re at 160 investigations so far this year.
Brown County is considered one of the most aggressive in the state at fighting welfare fraud. This new proposal would allow 20 percent of the money saved to stay local to investigate more fraud cases.
“These things could work, and it would have a statewide impact. Our biggest challenge is, for the amount of money we’re investigating from a local standpoint, we’d like to see some of that returned back,” says Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach.
Out of the roughly one million dollars uncovered in welfare fraud investigations annually in Brown County, Streckenbach estimates as much as $250,000 would be kept here.
“That’s been our goal all along is to try to make sure the taxpayers of Brown County aren’t paying for this,” says Brown County Sheriff John Gossage.
The sheriff’s office has two investigators that work welfare fraud cases full time.
In 2012 and 2013, they successfully helped prosecute the owners of the former Billy Goats Pub and Beach Road Liquor in Green Bay for fraudulent use of QUEST cards, the state’s food stamp program.
Now Representative Andre Jacque is pushing a bill designed to offer incentive for local agencies to investigate welfare fraud.
In Brown County, it would pay for two additional investigators and another prosecutor.
“Those are dollars that we know, certainly, are going out the door. And if you look at the national level, there’s almost a certain amount of fraud that we’re resigned to accepting within our public benefit programs, and I don’t think that should be the case,” says Jacque, a republican from De Pere.
He began circulating the bill for support in the legislature Monday morning.
Lawmakers proposed a similar bill back in 2013, but it never gained traction.
This time the bill eliminates a waiver from the federal government, which Jacque thinks makes it more likely to garner support in the legislature.