A terrible mistake was made by cutting the support for South Dakota’s most destitute children.
The unprecedented, unnecessary, harmful cut came outside the normal process for state budgeting. Long after the legislature ended with sufficient funding for these children, a surprise showed up this summer in the public notices: TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) payments were being cut 10 percent. The federal-state program for children is in desperate need.
For sure Congress has now increased the financial burdens on states, as our governor acknowledges. But the TANF cut as the immediate and first response is surely a mistake. Congress did not cut TANF. And nothing else in all of our state government received this 10 percent cut, only the children’s TANF payments.
