February 02, 2010 09:29 AM UTC

Yet another CBMS story

•  
• by: DavidThi808

(The never-ending CBMS nightmare – promoted by Colorado Pols)

from the Denver Post

Two years after the state promised to solve the long delays in its food- stamp and Medicaid programs, lawyers say there has not been enough improvement and are weighing whether to take the state back to court.

Doing the same thing and expecting different results is a form of insanity. Yet the state keeps doing the same thing.

The administration found that a large expensive consulting group could not do this. So they hired a different large expensive consulting group.

The legislature is told each year that this year it’ll be fixed. And each year they say ok and let it slide.

And meanwhile…

For Joanne Southard in Adams County, it means her cupboards are about empty.

She and her son and grandson have received $320 a month in food stamps since last summer. Though Southard sent in her paperwork in November for reauthorization, she hasn’t seen any new money on her food-stamp debit card.

On a recent weekday, the mother and son were down to rice and beans, some frozen waffles for the 2-year-old, Hot Pockets and juice Southard made from blending canned fruit she got at a food bank.

Why is it that our elected officials who can dive in to find operational incompetence and financial waste anywhere else in the state, become wet noodles when it comes to technology? Virtually every legislator I have talked to on both sides of the aisle tells me that they think OIT is the most wasteful spender in the government.

I think our elected officials are intimidated by technology. They don’t need to be – it really is as simple and straightforward as they suspect it is. I leave our legislators with this.

Improvements since then is like, “going from an F to an F plus,” Kahn said. “It’s not really satisfactory.”

For fiscal 2008, the latest year available, Colorado ranked 52nd in the country – right below Guam – in getting people food stamps on time.