Missouri
Missouri, Arkansas, other states scale back food stamp benefits even as prices soar
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Month by month, extra of the roughly 40 million Individuals who get assist shopping for groceries by the federal meals stamp program are seeing their advantages plunge even because the nation struggles with the largest enhance in meals prices in many years.
The funds to low-income people and households are dropping as governors finish COVID-19 catastrophe declarations and decide out of an ongoing federal program that made their states eligible for dramatic will increase in SNAP advantages, also called meals stamps. The U.S. Division of Agriculture started providing the elevated profit in April 2020 in response to surging unemployment after the COVID-19 pandemic swept over the nation.
The result’s that relying on the politics of a state, people and households in want discover themselves eligible for considerably totally different ranges of assist shopping for meals.
Nebraska took probably the most aggressive motion wherever within the nation, ending the emergency advantages 4 months into the pandemic in July 2020 in a transfer Republican Gov. Pete Rickett mentioned was essential to “present the remainder of the nation easy methods to get again to regular.”
Since then, practically a dozen states with Republican management have taken comparable motion, with Iowa this month being the newest place to slash the advantages. Advantages additionally shall be lower in Wyoming and Kentucky within the subsequent month. Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota and Tennessee have additionally scaled again the advantages.
Republican leaders argue that the additional advantages have been meant to solely quickly assist individuals compelled out of labor by the pandemic. Now that the virus has eased, they preserve, there isn’t any longer a necessity to supply the upper funds at a time when companies in most states are struggling to search out sufficient employees.
However the additional advantages additionally assist out households in want at a time of skyrocketing costs for meals. Recipients obtain at the least $95 per 30 days below this system, however some people and households usually eligible for under small advantages can get a whole lot of {dollars} in additional funds every month.
Your entire program would come to a halt if the federal authorities decides to finish its public well being emergency, although the Biden administration to this point hasn’t signaled an intention to take action.
For Tara Kramer, 45, of Des Moines, the choice by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to finish the emergency funds beginning April 1 meant her month-to-month SNAP profit plunged from $250 in March to $20 in April. Kramer, who has a genetic dysfunction that may trigger intense ache, mentioned the additional cash enabled her to purchase more healthy meals that made her really feel higher and assist her to dwell a extra lively life.
“My coronary heart sank,” Kramer mentioned. “All of the recollections from earlier than the emergency allotment got here dashing again.”
Alex Murphy, a spokesman for Reynolds, famous the additional advantages have been at all times meant to assist individuals who misplaced jobs due to the pandemic and mentioned, “we’ve to return to pre-pandemic life.” Murphy identified that Iowa has over 86,000 job openings listed on a state unemployment web site.
However Kramer mentioned she’s not in a position to work and that even getting out of her condominium could be a wrestle at occasions.
Vince Corridor, who oversees public coverage for the nationwide meals financial institution community Feeding America, mentioned ending the additional advantages ignores the fact that even because the pandemic wanes there hasn’t been a decline in demand at meals banks.
Wages have been growing in the USA and the nationwide unemployment fee in March dropped to three.6%, however these positive factors have been offset by an 8.5% enhance in inflation in comparison with a 12 months in the past. Meals is amongst objects rising the quickest, leaving many households unable to purchase sufficient groceries.
“The COVID pandemic is giving method to a starvation pandemic,” Corridor mentioned. “We’re in an actual, actual wrestle.”
Feeding America, which represents 200 meals banks, experiences that demand for meals has elevated simply as these organizations are seeing particular person donations dwindle and meals prices rise. The group estimates the nation’s meals banks will spend 40% extra to purchase meals within the fiscal 12 months ending June 2022 as within the earlier 12 months.
For individuals like Annie Ballan, 51, of Omaha, Nebraska, the choice by Ricketts to cease taking part in this system diminished the SNAP funds she and her son obtain from practically $500 a month to $41. Each have well being issues and may’t work.
“From the center of the month to the top of the month, individuals don’t have any meals,” Ballan mentioned, her voice rising in anger. “That is all of the governor’s fault. He says he loves Nebraskans, that Nebraskans are fantastic, however he’s lower off our meals.”
The demand on meals banks will solely develop as extra states cut back their SNAP funds, which usually present 9 meals for each one meal provided by meals banks, Corridor mentioned.
Valerie Andrews, 59, of St. Charles, Missouri, mentioned the SNAP advantages that she and her husband depend on fell from $430 a month to $219 when Missouri ended the additional funds in August 2021. Andrews, who’s disabled, mentioned she tries to price range fastidiously and will get meals usually from a meals pantry however it’s troublesome.
“We’re barely making it from paycheck to paycheck,” she mentioned. “It will get fairly tough more often than not.”
Officers at meals banks and pantries mentioned they’ll do their greatest to fulfill elevated demand however there isn’t any method they’ll absolutely offset the drop in SNAP advantages.
Matt Unger, director of the Des Moines Space Spiritual Council community of meals pantries in Iowa’s capital metropolis, famous the pantry’s price for a 5-ounce can of hen as jumped from 54 cents in March 2019 to a present value of $1.05.
“Prices are simply going by the roof,” he mentioned.
To report a correction or typo, please e mail digitalnews@ky3.com
Copyright 2022 AP. All rights reserved.
Missouri
Lucas says taxpayers will lose if Kansas and Missouri engage in incentive competition for Chiefs, Royals
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – The fight over the future home of the Chiefs and Royals continues.
On Thursday, Missouri Governor Mike Parson said he expects the state to produce an aid package to keep the teams in the Show Me State by the end of the year Missouri governor says he expects public aid plan to keep Chiefs, Royals in state.
This comes after Kansas put together a plan last week to try bring both teams to its side of the state line. Kansas is offering to pay for up to 70 percent of the cost of two new stadiums over 30 years through sales tax and revenue (STAR) bonds.
Gov. Parson did not provide specifics of what Missouri’s deal for the teams would look like, but he’s confident Missouri will win out.
“Missouri’s in a much better financial shape than Kansas is, but it depends on how much you want to tie up for a 25- to 40-year lease with a team,” Parson said. “I don’t know what that amount will be, but I think Missouri is in a much better position than what Kansas’ bonds are.”
Locally, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas says the city and state never stopped talking to the teams. He is glad to see Missouri start to act at the state level.
“We’ve known all along that Missouri would continue to be competitive. The city of Kansas City will, as well,” said Lucas. “The Chiefs and Royals belong in Kansas City, Missouri.”
READ MORE: Discussions of new sales tax proposal for Chiefs stadium delayed by Jackson County legislators
Lucas thinks the state of Missouri may need to get involved in the stadium discussion as it may be an economic pool too deep for the city to swim in.
“The state of Kansas threw out some fairly extensive tools. I don’t know to what extent they are ones that could ever work objectively,” Lucas said. “I think that when we are talking about the size of particularly a football stadium, the tens of thousands of parking spots, the expense, the billions of dollars, we owe it to our taxpayers in Kansas City to make sure that conversation gets beyond just the 508,000 people in Kansas City and is something far more extensive.”
Lucas sees Kansas’ STAR bond legislation as a clear violation of the border war truce between Kansas and Missouri. He says the failed vote in Jackson County doesn’t mean the state of Missouri wants the teams to leave.
READ MORE: Pasquantino hits go-ahead sacrifice fly as Royals rally to beat AL Central-rival Guardians, 2-1
“The border war truce was about not using economic development tools to poach a business from another jurisdiction that has been there for a long time. The Chiefs and Royals have been in Missouri for years. There are economic tools being used to steal them,” said Lucas. “Jackson County alone does not speak for the entire state of Missouri or the city of Kansas City, and those discussions are ongoing.”
Now, Lucas fears Kansas’ STAR bond legislation will start an arms race of incentives to keep the teams in the metro – to the franchises’ benefit, and not to metropolitan Kansas City as a whole.
“I think what people of our community will see, for better or worse, is competing incentives,” Lucas said. “Usually when you have a battle like that, it’s only the taxpayers who lose. That’s what happens in battles like this, but we’ll still work to get to the best deals possible.”
Copyright 2024 KCTV. All rights reserved.
JOHNSON COUNTY, Mo. (KCTV) – A 50-year-old Missouri man was seriously injured Thursday morning in a single-vehicle crash on a rural highway.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said 50-year-old Ronald Watson of Leeton, Mo., was seriously injured after crashing his motorcycle on Missouri Highway 23 at Route WW.
While attempting to drive around a curve, Watson activated the clutch instead of the brake on the motorcycle, causing the bike to overturn, MSHP officials said in a crash report.
The crash happened shortly after 6:15 a.m. Thursday. According to the crash report, Watson was wearing a helmet.
He was ejected from the bike after the bike overturned and skid off the right side of the highway.
Copyright 2024 KCTV. All rights reserved.
The Missouri Legislature’s Task Force on Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment is holding monthly meetings to brainstorm ways to fight drug abuse. It is continuing its work from last year to help Missourians battling addiction.
Dr. Angeline Stanislaus, with the Missouri Department of Mental Health, led a presentation about how substance use affects a person’s brain. She told lawmakers that repeated use of a substance could cause withdrawal, craving, and loss of control.
“In order to get a certain buzz level of mental state that you’re looking for, a buzz or a euphoric state you’re looking for, you may initially take even one glass of wine may have done it, or two glasses of wine might have done it, but over a period of time, if you use it on a daily basis or several times a week, the two glasses of wine is not giving you the buzz,” she said. “It’s going to be three. It may be four, it may take five.”
Stanislaus said that this same pattern of use appears with someone using opioids, alcohol, tobacco, and hard drugs.
She explained that abuse and neglect play a big part in substance abuse.
“The most common form of abuse is neglected children,” she said. “They just are born, and they don’t get the touch because touch is so important. The nourishing nurturing nature of an adult to a child is so important for the child when the child is born. They are not touched; they are not given the right amount of stimulation.”
She said that modern medicine has learned that a person’s body is still altered, even coming out of a rehab or treatment center for substance use, which is why she points to medication-assisted treatment as a way to address opioid use disorder.
“It has to be a very small gradual process and the journey’s very different for different people,” Dr. Stanislaus said. “If half a milligram of buprenorphine is what they need or a milligram of buprenorphine is what they need in order to not return to the substance say ten years later, I think it’s a win.”
The FDA identifies medication-assisted treatment as a mixture of using medicines with counseling and behavioral therapy to treat opioid use disorders. Because of the chronic nature of using opioids, medical providers periodically reevaluate if the treatment is working. Some patients may continue treatment for the rest of their lives.
© 2024, Missourinet.
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