In a $40 million dollar program over three years designed to give parents cash money for little things like going to the dentist ($100) and big things like holding down a full-time job ($1800 per year!) and passing the high school competency test ($600!), somehow the people in charge managed to spent more than $10 million on operating costs including their salaries and almost $10 million on research and evaluation, and only managed to get $14 million of the $40 million out to poor families. The “opportunity” seems mainly to have been for the full employment program for the project bureaucrats and researchers and not for poor families at all!

They claimed that 2400 families participated in the program. On the back-of-the-envelope math on $40 million expenditure that would have averaged about $16,667 per family over the period. But in reality barely one-third of the dollars went to the families with an average of $5833 per family. NYC reported that those who “participated earned, on average, more than $6000 a year in the first two years” according to the article in the New York Times, but who knows how the math worked there?

And, typically, besides spending more to figure out how to give it away and to research who got it than they were giving, the City also confessed that the program was way too complicated. According to Linda L. Gibbs, the deputy mayor for health and human services, “Big lesson for the future? Got make it a lot more simple.” No, duh! She said, “many families had been perplexed by the guidelines that were laid out for them.”

It is not hard to understand from the expenditures and from Ms. Gibbs’ comments what really went on here to subvert a good program and a great idea. At the base clearly the program was premised on a lack of trust for the poor. Once again a citizen wealth program was subverted ideologically because it was assumed the poor would scam and that the big problem would not be modifying behavior but protecting against scams.

This could have and should have worked. The results in Brazil on these Lula-led programs have been outstanding and almost revolutionary!

It could have worked in New York City as well if the bureaucrats had been willing to keep in simple and give more money to the poor and keep less for themselves and their political need to research and study every dollar they gave away.

More money really does reduce poverty. Let’s embrace that ideology rather than any other, and next time, make this work!

New Orleans

• Voter slaps at Corzine and Bloomberg have a populist anti-Wall Street and decidedly, “money-can’t-buy-my-vote” cast to them for two rich guys willing to spend whatever it takes, particularly the record setting $90M outlay by Mayor Bloomberg in his very close race.
• Unions need to listen to their members more and to political pros and consultants less.  It’s embarrassing to know that two huge NYC political players, SEIU and UFT/AFT, took a walk on this election.  Their members didn’t.  Controller Thompson, the challenger, romped with African-Americans and voters making less than $100,000 both of which are heavily represented by those two unions.  Had they not been twiddling thumbs on the sidelines, this race would have been even closer and might have sent a message against big money politics that could reverberate around the country.

• The Working Families Party of New York is once again a HUGE winner this election!  WFP was vocal from the first blush against the 3^rd term effort and said so unabashedly.  They refused Bloomberg access to their line, despite persistent pressure.  Not having the WFP doing turnout hurt the Mayor, and having them do turnout for Thompson dramatically helped him bring the race close.  Big, WOW, here with props for Danny Cantor and all of the WFP team!

• What are the progressive forces going to do without the GOTV and registration work in the community which ACORN has indicated it is unlikely to play in 2010 and beyond?  It was wild to read the pre-election right turnout scare tactics using ACORN as the boogieman.  A DC spokesperson for ACORN said they were not even involved anywhere in this race in New Jersey, and despite all of the strum and dang, ACORN had no base or operations in the NY-23^rd race.  Turnout was low and decidedly down among minorities and youth.  The more one reads and studies this rightwing ideological attack the smarter and more effective it seems, if its main purpose was to help level the playing field by successfully pushing one of the players off the field.

And, yes, none of this was about Obama, but all politics is local and the President will get the message.  According to the New York Times, Bloomberg was effective in putting the President and his people to the sidelines with a head fake and some bluster, and Thompson’s work as the standard bearer for the Democrats could seen a different storyline with real White House help rather the shrinking back, timidity that came with riding the donkey in New York.  What’s up with that?!?

If I were in one of the President’s men, I would be getting an apology together (and maybe offering my resignation!), because this is a huge wakeup call from the base, and it needs to be heard clearly without putting more sugar in this sad cup of coffee.