Sources of Revenue:

General Fund

Legislation creates:

Neither Program nor Fund

Fiscal Note Summary

Effect this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.

The purpose of this bill is to create a random drug testing program for applicants and recipients of federal-state and state assistance in the form of welfare or food stamps or both, and unemployment compensation. As written, the Department of Health and Human Resources (Department) cannot determine the fiscal impact of the proposed legislation

Fiscal Note Detail

Effect of Proposal	Fiscal Year
Effect of Proposal	2009 Increase/Decrease (use"-")	2010 Increase/Decrease (use"-")	Fiscal Year (Upon Full Implementation)
1. Estmated Total Cost	0	0	0
Personal Services	0	0	0
Current Expenses	0	0	0
Repairs and Alterations	0	0	0
Assets	0	0	0
Other	0	0	0
2. Estimated Total Revenues	0	0	0

Explanation of above estimates (including long-range effect):

Memorandum

The proposed legislation does not define the percentage of the recipient population that will be randomly drug tested or frequency to which the testing is to occur, below is a example of costs based on an scenario of testing 20% of caseloads. The Department's Bureau for Children and Families (BCF) would be involved with the drug testing related to the welfare (TANF) and food stamp (SNAP) programs. In February 2009 there were 4,799 adults on TANF and 163,968 on SNAP. Testing on 20% of those populations would be 959 and 32,793 respectively, thus testing 33,752. The current contract BCF has with HRS, Inc is $57.50/drug test. The bill states each person will be tested twice so the per person testing cost used is $115.00, therefore costs would be 33,752 x $115 = $3,881,480. This is based on existing case loads and does not include any amount for new applicants WIC is not specifically identified in this bill as a welfare or food stamp program, and federal regulations specify that it be administered by the state health department and is considered an adjunct to health care, therefore these case loads were not include in the above estimates Something that must be considered is the impact that removing people from the assistance programs will have on other members of the family and especially the children. It is possible that these families may become CPS cases or Domestic Violence cases which are also supported by the state. Federal USDA regulations prohibit drug testing as a requirement for eligibility to receive SNAP benefits. In addition, in Michigan, the US Supreme Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that the drug testing of welfare recipients was unconstitutional (Marchwinski v. Howard).

Person submitting Fiscal Note: Martha Yeager Walker
Email Address: dhhrbudgetoffice@wv.gov