Putting Photos on EBT Cards Will Cut Down on Welfare Abuse

There is no denying it. Mainers know there is misuse and abuse within the welfare system.

Hello, this is Governor Paul LePage.

Liberal politicians are out of touch. They claim that welfare fraud is a victimless crime. They ignore the facts about rampant welfare fraud in our State. Maine taxpayers are demanding accountability in our entitlement programs, but liberals rejected our common-sense welfare reforms.

We can’t wait for liberals to wake up to reality. We can’t waste time playing games with Washington, D.C. We are taking action. We have already started cracking down on welfare fraud because we know how important it is to ensure your taxpayer dollars are spent appropriately.

This week, our Administration began putting photos on EBT cards. Two states already do this, Massachusetts and New York. Both are very liberal states that are ruled by progressive Democrats. Even they recognize the value of doing this.

We applaud the efforts of those states, but we want to avoid the errors they made in putting photos on EBT cards. To get started, we developed a pilot program in the Bangor office of DHHS. This will help us make any adjustments and corrections to our program before we implement the program statewide.

We are confident this will enhance the integrity of the EBT program. It will give us the ability to identify and prosecute EBT abuse and drug trafficking cases. EBT cards are often traded as currency, and EBT cards have been seized during drug busts.

On Friday, Gorham Police arrested a woman who was on probation for drug trafficking. She had her own EBT card and had been using three EBT cards that did not belong to her. Two of those cards belonged to people in jail.

Then on Saturday, Gorham Police arrested a man who was out on bail for sex trafficking. He had also been using the three EBT cards that did not belong to him.

Earlier in April, Saco Police arrested a man accused of offering to sell the remaining $70 on his EBT card for $35 outside Shaw’s Supermarket.

We have real evidence of the problem. Misuse and abuse of EBT cards is not anecdotal. Liberal politicians and federal agents are trying to prevent us from cracking down on welfare fraud and abuse. They will not stop us. As your Governor, I will keep doing what is right for hard-working Maine taxpayers. I will keep fighting to fix the welfare system.

Our Administration has teamed up with law enforcement to enact welfare reform. DHHS met with the Maine Chiefs of Police Association to help them coordinate efforts with fraud investigators to identify welfare misuse and abuse.  

As part of this effort, DHHS has created a new hotline that is designated specifically for law enforcement officials to report EBT abuse.

Liberals are free to believe welfare fraud is a victimless crime. I know better, and you know better. As long as I am your Governor, I will not let Maine taxpayers be victimized by waste, fraud and abuse in our welfare system.