SUNBURY — Catherine Teisher has a zero-tolerance drug policy for anyone staying at the Haven Ministry shelter she operates in Sunbury, and she supports proposed state legislation requiring some welfare recipients to submit to random drug tests.
“It sounds like a good idea to me,” she said Thursday. “Drug addiction is a real social problem. Why should the rest of us pay for their drugs?”
Milton area Salvation Army Maj. Raymond Bartholomew said he opposes the bill restricting financial assistance to addicts because he fears it would hurt their spouses and children.
The idea for drug testing welfare recipients has been debated in several states and shot down by a few federal courts, including in Michigan.
Still, state Rep. Garth Everett, R-Muncy, said he’s pushing the bill to “put integrity and accountability back in the welfare system. We don’t want to deny benefits to anyone who qualifies for them.”
Everett&# 8217;s bill calls for randomly testing people with felony drug convictions and is part of a larger welfare reform package that also includes preventing welfare money from being used to purchase tobacco products and strengthening penalties for fraud.
State Rep. Fred Keller, R-85 of Kreamer, supports the reform proposal as a common-sense approach to reducing waste and restoring the public trust in the system.
“The bottom line is that there will always be those people who attempt to bamboozle the welfare system,” he said. “Our job as lawmakers is to do everything we can to ensure the assistance reaches those who are truly in need.”
Teisher doesn’t see a downside to random drug testing of welfare recipients.
“Children who are living in a drug environment are already adversely affected. This would force people to clean up their act,” she said.
Taking benefits away based on a failed drug test doesn’t address the problem of addiction and harms the rest of the family, Bartholomew argues.
“I think they should give the benefits to the family members and order rehab or some type of counseling,” he said.
While drug and alcohol abuse is a problem, Bartholomew said politicians should focus on the larger issue facing welfare recipients — the lack of jobs.
“Some people do abuse the system and sit on the couch eating chips and watching Oprah, but most want to work to pay their bills and support their families,” he said.
News
Drug tests on horizon for some welfare recipients
- News
-
-
Burgers, people sizzle
SUNBURY -- Under clear skies Saturday, the temperature felt like 100 degrees, more like the Fourth of July than the Memorial Day weekend, according to a meteorologist who said the sticky, stifling conditions will persist for several days.
-
It pays to monitor accounts
Several people responded to the scam alert story which appeared last Sunday in The Daily Item to say they too have been recent victims of scams involving the theft of their identities and bank card information.
-
Teens go for baroque
A sonata plays from a Mac book in the music room at Lewisburg Area High School. It’s a baroque-style composition with flavors of Beethoven’s First symphony. Senior Sean Swartz, 18, hums along and does a little conducting with a pen as the music plays.
-
'To Do': Concert
WEST MILTON - Buffalo Valley Singers presents a concert at 7:30 p.m. May 27 at Central Oak Heights, 75 Heritage Road.
-
Firefighter union may char pacts
LEWISBURG — Paid members of the William Cameron Engine Company have voted to unionize under the International Association of Fire Fighters, a move believed to stem from internal tension between paid and volunteer members of the department, according to various sources.
-
M-W rule on drug testing is area’s boldest
MIDDLEBURG — Midd-West is the only school district in the Central Susquehanna Valley that requires students interested in participating in extra-curricular activities to agree to submit to random drug testing.
-
New shelter exec gets busy
When Cathy Teisher stepped down as executive director of Haven Ministries, in March, Pamela Steffen stepped up.
-
Tax boost could bring $120G pad
The Lewisburg Area School District will seek a 3.2 percent real estate tax increase for the 2012-13 school year, the maximum allowed under the index, under a proposed budget now available for public comment.
-
Fire has burned beneath Centralia for 50 years
CENTRALIA — Fifty years ago on Sunday, a fire at the town dump ignited an exposed coal seam, setting off a chain of events that eventually led to the demolition of nearly every building in Centralia — a whole community of 1,400 simply gone.
-
'To Do': Montandon Community Days
MONTANDON - Montandon Community Days will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 26 along Railroad Street.
-
California’s Coronado named nation’s best beach
CORONADO, Calif. (AP) — Like a Hollywood star, Coronado’s 1.5 mile-long beach literally sparkles, thanks to the mineral mica glinting in its sand.
That’s one of the reasons why Coronado — flanked by the iconic hotel featured in Marilyn Monroe’s 1958 film “Some Like It Hot” — has been named the No. 1 beach in the United States in the 2012 survey by “Dr. Beach” professor Stephen P. Leatherman of Florida International University. -
Typical CEO made $9.6M last year, AP study finds
Profits at big U.S. companies broke records last year, and so did pay for CEOs.
- More News Headlines
-
