Opinion: Protect Funds for IHSS Anti-Fraud Initiatives
"Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to save money by cutting state funding to combat In-Home Supportive Services fraud is penny-wise and pound-foolish" because it "will create an open season for criminals to bilk taxpayers out of the very dollars he wants to save," Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully writes in a Sacramento Bee opinion piece. "For the past two fiscal years, the state budget included $10 million for IHSS fraud investigations," which "made California eligible to receive $10 million in additional federal funds, totaling $20 million each fiscal year for distribution to any county willing to implement an IHSS fraud investigation plan," she notes. "The governor should protect IHSS fraud prevention funds because ... [f]ailing to do so will be a disservice to IHSS participants, taxpayers and communities throughout California," Scully concludes.
- "Budget Cuts Make Targets of Aged, Disabled" (Scully, Sacramento Bee, 1/7).