[ OUR OPINION ]

---

Spending welfare money
on media ads is risky

THE ISSUE State legislators are questioning whether the Lingle administration properly spent federal welfare money on a media campaign against substance abuse.

SUBSTANCE abuse is a major barrier for many welfare recipients seeking to lift themselves from poverty, which is why many states spend federal welfare grant money on alcohol and drug treatment programs. The Lingle administration might argue that spending welfare money on television and newspaper ads discouraging young people from using illicit drugs in the first place nips the problem at the bud. Whether such expenditures of federal welfare money are allowed is dubious.

State legislators raised their eyebrows in learning that $1 million in welfare funds is being used to pay for anti-drug ads featuring Olympic decathlete Bryan Clay, singer Jasmine Trias and surfer Bethany Hamilton. The media campaign, run out of Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona's office, has spent $513,000 of the $1 million planned for the campaign. The funds came from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families grants, an important component of the 1996 welfare reform package.

TANF grants typically pay the cost of job training, wage subsidies, travel expenses and child care for families struggling to become self-sufficient over a five-year period. However, more than half the states invest TANF funds in drug treatment programs, with single-state expenditures ranging from $178,000 to $20.2 million in 2002.

The inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services has notified the state that it will audit Hawaii's antipoverty program later this month, at the request of Sharon Fujii, regional administrator of the department's Administration for Children and Families, which oversees the grant program. If the state is found in violation, it could face financial penalties.

Lillian Koller, the state human services director, told legislators that the state can collect as much as $98 million a year in TANF funds, and spending $1 million of it on the media campaign is "a good way to get people out of poverty." She told the Star-Bulletin's Richard Borreca that the state administration was trying to find the "best ways to take advantage of the TANF money."

The federal guidelines emphasize that states may be flexible and creative in how they spend the money, starting "with the assumption that they may use these funds in innovative ways to achieve the critical goals laid out in the TANF statute." As a general rule, states must use the grant money "for eligible, needy families with a child and for one of the four purposes of the TANF program."

Those purposes are described as providing assistance to needy families; ending their dependence by promoting job preparation, work and marriage; preventing and reducing out-of-wedlock pregnancies; and encouraging the formation and maintenance of two-parent families. The Lingle administration's interpretation of those guidelines is innovative to say the least.