Gov. Scott Walker wants drug testing for public aid recipients
Madison — Gov. Scott Walker is laying out his vision for a second term, pledging to freeze technical college tuition in the state, cut income taxes and test working-age recipients of public benefits for drugs.
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■Require drug testing at an undisclosed cost for able-bodied adults receiving unemployment insurance payments or benefits under FoodShare, the successor to the food stamps program. The plan would also lower from 60 months to 48 months the total period of time that able-bodied adults over their working lives could receive either type of benefit.
Jon Peacock, research director for the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, said drug testing carried with it costs but had turned up only a modest number of substance abusers in other states that have adopted it. He said that the practice has had setbacks in other states, pointing out that Florida's law was struck down by a federal judge late last year. That case is on appeal.
"We should be striving to find ways to help the people who have been left behind by the slow economic recovery, rather than stigmatizing people who receive public assistance by making them pee into a bottle," Peacock said. "Should (government officials) be allowed to do the same for Social Security and Medicare recipients?"
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