Posted on 01/28/2009 7:03:33 PM PST by lowbridge
The two-story house on 17th St. looks typical of the working-class homes on Racine's west side. Three bedrooms, one bath. Assessed by the city at $122,000.
Yet inside, a young woman has tapped into a home-based money-making operation that netted her and her three sisters more than half a million in taxpayer dollars since 2006.
And they did it with the blessing of the state.
All four had been in-home child-care providers. Collectively they have 17 children. For years, the government has paid them to stay home and care for each other's children.
Nothing illegal about it under the rules of Wisconsin Shares, the decade-old child-care assistance program designed alongside Wisconsin's welfare-to-work program.
"It's a loophole," said Laurice Lincoln, administrative coordinator for child care with the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services. "Do we have concerns about it? Yes, it can be a problem. But if it's allowed, it's allowed. We really can't dispute it."
The Journal Sentinel spent four months investigating the $340 million taxpayer-supported program and uncovered an array of costly problems - including fraud. But the investigation also revealed a system rife with lax regulations that have paved the way for abuse by parents and providers.
Consider:
Sisters or other relatives can stay home, swap kids and receive taxpayer dollars. The four Racine sisters took in as much as $540,000 in taxpayer dollars in less than three years, mostly to watch each other's kids.
Rules allow parents to be employed by child-care providers and enroll their children at the same place. At some centers, children of employees make up the majority of kids in day care. In one Milwaukee location, an employer and parents are accused of teaming up to bilk the system out of more than $360,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
I love government.
Just think of how much creative energy will be expended by folks trying to cash in on the stimulus bill boondoggle....
Why the hell not?
We’re bailing out everybody else and his dog.
Go for it!
The govt pays people to babysit? What’s the hourly rate?
The correct model to follow is the farm subsidy model. The government should pay me for NOT watching anybody’s kids.
damn im a realtor i think i just found my new proffesion! sign me up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reparations, baby.
Between the 4 sisters they have 17 children.....
They've been doing this for 3 years. 3000 hours.
540 thousand dollars divided by 3000 hours, that comes to 180 dollars an hour. And assuming it was 8 hours a day (6000 hours), then that comes to 90 dollars an hour.
Atlas Puked....
That seems a bit extravagant, unless the baby is an adult with naughty ideas.
Started in 2006, so two years.
$5.51 per hour for 17 children for 40 hours a week for 3 years which totalled $540,000. But I’m no math genius.
Oops, forgot, per child.
Maybe these voters better think about it. This is a much better deal than they would be getting in a stimulus package.
Easy money...Thorazine and Play Station 2’s make it easy money!!!
The question is who in the program told these people how to do this!! Because they are two stupid to figure it out on their own!!
If these women were married to men who had real jobs, I’d be delighted they each had (more than) four kids. But these women are parasites.
“Do we have concerns about it? Yes, it can be a problem. But if it’s allowed, it’s allowed. We really can’t dispute it.”
Put ‘em charge of the Department of Loopholes (new Department under the guidance of Timothy Geithner).
Do we need to see their voter registrations?
These people are RAISED on how to work the system. And by “these people” I mean inner-city welfare scammers. They were brought up on welfare as the main source of sustenance and pass that along from generation to generation.
The multi-trillion dollar “War On Poverty” has done nothing for eliminating poverty — it has just made people who look at the system and work out how to get around the latest wrinkles. 5 years and out? HAH! You just have to starve your own kids and then trot them out in front of the public and say “it ain’t their fault” while taking the money and burning it in crack pipes.
Your tax dollars at work people — you get what you subsidize and slow down what you tax.
If you can’t stop the crazy train, at least try to get a free ride I guess.
Maybe they could stop allowing it.
Sorry - that makes sense. None of that here.
“But if its allowed, its allowed. We really cant dispute it.
Maybe they could stop allowing it.
Sorry - that makes sense. None of that here.”
Don’t mess with the Stimulus Package (they’ve already lost free condoms)(pointy water balloon party has been canceled)
Photo from the article
And guess where much of that Democrat “Stimulus” package is going to end up going? To programs like this.
What did YOUR search show?
HALF MILLION DOLLARS, folks..!!! For sisters!
“The question is who in the program told these people how to do this!!”
* * * * * *
I’ll take “Community Organizers” for $100, Alex.
EXACTLY....17 kids without Dads....and they wonder why we have problems.
This is exactly what Obama has in mind...
Oh - by the way - those four sisters have 17 children. Where are the daddies?
Well, if it's "allowed", it's not bilking is it?
How did they buy the HOUSE, do you think?
First we pay them to breed, then we pay them to buy a house, then we’re victimizers for making is to they can buy it, THEN we employ them to watch their OWN KIDS..!
Oh...and POTUS’ Aunt is an illegal alien living in subsidized housing...
ARE WE MADE OF MONEY?

Payments to child-care providers have been made based on women claiming to work ironing a man's shirts a few hours a week, selling amateur artwork and dehydrating fruit - all jobs that are difficult for county workers to verify, according to front-line workers.
"Milking the system" has gone to a whole new level.
“Torneshia”
a proud Ubangi name
Sounds like a stimulus bill.
I’m a fool.
I’ve been trying to do business selling things to regular folks.
I should have been chasing the Gov’t dollars all along.
Who taught them how to do this? I’ll place my bet on ACORN. I’ll betcha it’s one of their Commie Community programs.
No sign of the word “husband” either.
well put and I could not agree more.
(snirk)
and yoz sed uz welfare quenz wuz stoopid...
Who is the bigger fool, the ones taking the “money for nothing” or the fools paying for it?
Another scam is grandparents being paid to raise their own grandchildren as foster children, after their own kids became crack hoes or prisoners. They did such a bang-up job the first time, let's pay them to screw up the next generation.
In some circles, taking care of business doesn't mean working a job; it means working the system.
Most of us ordinary schleps who go to work every day have no idea of the scamming that has gone on for 2+ generations now. Immigrants and the commie-unity organized know the system well and work it to their maximum benefit.
This is common. The generational welfare recipients are VERY good at working the system. Is it any wonder that I preferred to take care of the Hispanic illegals in the ER as opposed to the generational welfarers because the former group were at least GRATEFUL. They knew they were getting help because their own country didn’t give a damn about them. The latter group are hell to deal with, demanding and downright mean. I almost got attacked three times working ER. Can you guess the situation surrounding two of them????? They’re all attitude and entitlement. Everyone else OWES them.
“I want my baby seen NOW!”
“My baby is hungry. Get him some formula. I ain’t got none.”
One generational, young Hispanic couple had a sweet deal. They netted twice what I made after taxes and they didn’t lift a finger. They lived together, both claimed the kid but one listed a different address (as in his mother’s). They got housing, food, free healthcare and cleared about 48,000 leftover for such things as a nice car, clothes and all the latest electronic equipment. Who was the sucker? Apparently ME.
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