Misplaced focus lets biggest criminals slip away

Gov. Paul LePage and his administration love to look like they’re tough on crime.

Whether it’s urging law-abiding and armed residents to take illegal vigilante action against people who they think might be drug dealers or cracking down on “welfare cheats,” it’s all about punishing people who do wrong.

Well, some people.

Others. No so much.

The governor has made his prejudice known. He has said that asylum seekers are the biggest problem facing Maine and that black men from away are the cause of our state’s drug problems and come here to impregnate white girls.

And, time and again, he equates poverty with criminality.

In January, his Department of Health and Human Services put out a self-congratulatory press release about its success in cracking down on welfare fraud. The department even included some examples of people who had been convicted.

Among other charges, one woman was convicted of “water dumping,” a crime in which a person uses food assistance to buy bottled water, dumps it out and then claims the deposit in cash.

Another woman was convicted of selling her food assistance benefits for cash. She was ordered to pay $520 in restitution and serve 27 days in jail.

These people broke the law, and they deserve to be caught and to face appropriate punishment. But the numbers suggest that the department’s emphasis is in the wrong place.

In 2011, the state added nine fraud investigators, growing the ranks to 17. Since then, the number of people charged with welfare-related crimes has increased — from 10 in 2011 to 36 in 2015. Along with the number of cases, the amount of restitution has gone up from $176,000 in 2011 to $467,000 last year.

With LePage’s constant rhetorical attention on “welfare cheats,” it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the number of people calling to report suspected cases has also increased.

Last year, 2,773 tips were reported to the department. That’s plenty to keep investigators busy. But for all of the attention being paid, a little more 1 percent — or 46 — of those cases turned out to merit charges. And 36 ended in guilty pleas or prosecutions.

While the governor has focused his attention and the attention of the state on the desperate people at the bottom, the big fish have started to slip through the net.

When it comes to “welfare fraud,” the biggest criminals tend to be at the top.

Since 2010, recipients have been ordered to pay about $1.2 million in restitution for benefits they shouldn’t have received. But providers — health care providers and others — have had a lot stickier fingers. Restitution during the same time period added up to more than $62.1 million.

While the governor and the new investigators have been focused on the small-time criminals, the number of providers being charged with fraud has declined, along with the amount of restitution collected.

In 2010, 15 provider cases resulted in $14.9 million in restitution. The number of provider cases stayed relatively consistent through 2014, averaging 15 a year. In 2015, the number of provider cases dropped to 10, and provider restitution dropped from $25.7 million in 2012 to $1.2 million in 2015.

Even with the decline in case numbers and restitution, the provider cases still resulted in about 2.5 times as much money reclaimed by the state last year.

It’s easy to point at people living at society’s fringe and call them criminals. It’s a lot harder to point that same finger at doctors, home health providers, pharmacies and other businesses in our communities.

LePage, as we know, prefers the easy path that gives him the loudest microphone.

Facts aside, highlighting the idea that people who receive state assistance are criminals makes it easier to gut the programs that are helping to keep people alive and from going hungry.

And it’s the only way to build support for draconian and ineffective policies, such as drug testing and illegally placing photos on EBT cards, that the LePage administration continues to push.

That’s the end goal for LePage. To undermine the state’s safety net to the point where it’s ineffective, to make it nearly impossible for people to get help and to scapegoat the poor for the state’s continued economic problems.

The vast majority of people who receive assistance — whether it’s TANF, SNAP, housing assistance or MaineCare — are honest and law-abiding. They do their best to follow the rules, and they’re working hard to pull themselves and create more stable lives for their families.

Likewise, the vast majority of health care providers are honest and do their best to follow the rules, run an honest business and help serve the people who come to them for help.

Sure, the state is getting better at finding the few bad individuals who game the system from the bottom, but the biggest offenders — the ones costing taxpayers the most money — appear to be slipping away.

David Farmer

About David Farmer

David Farmer is a political and media consultant in Portland, where he lives with his wife and two children. He was senior adviser to Democrat Mike Michaud’s campaign for governor and a longtime journalist. You can reach him at dfarmer14@hotmail.com.