I had about 7600 visitors in June, making it my second-best month ever. In the end, the pace was just slightly behind that of May, when I broke 8000 hits; going out of town for a few days dropped the rate just enough to lag behind. I made my 2000th post late in the month, after receiving my 2000th comment early on. Visitors 80,000 and 85,000 arrived in June, keeping me on track to hit 100,000 in late August. There are a number of new blogs in the list of top referrers for the month - as always, the complete list is under the More link.
As of July 1, I've been in the blogging business for a year and a half. On July 20, I'll celebrate one full year on this domain. My monthly traffic has roughly doubled since I abandoned Blogspot, as you can see here (the July 2002 total is skewed by my arrival late in the month; it was about what I got in August if you add visits from my old site). I'm still going strong after 18 months, thanks in large part to my great readers. I can't tell you how fantastic it is to hear or read the words "I enjoy your blog". Thank you, all of you, very much.
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Subject: WSJ - Miss. Mgt Problems 1995
“Mississippi's Human Services Department is being investigated or reviewed by the state auditor's office, the state attorney general's office, a state legislative panel and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General.”
Mr. Fordice and the executive director of the Department of Human Services, GREGG PHILLIPS , say the Child Care audit is a politicized version of an internal investigation launched by Mr. Phillips himself when he took office.
Mr. Fordice's talk of more-sensitive government, however, appears at odds with his choice to run the Human Services' program --MR. PHILLIPS. A 34-YEAR-OLD FORMER STOCKBROKER AND POLITICAL FUND-RAISER who ran Mr. Fordice's campaign finances, Mr. Phillips had no prior human-services experience. His office is decorated with photos of Ronald Reagan and Vince Lombardi and a Dan Quayle commemorative horseshoe. Aside from a few sheets of paper, the only items on his desk during a recent visit were a cellular phone, a beeper and a pair of sunglasses. "I like to keep things simple," he says.
. . . his initial PRIVATIZATION MOVE QUICKLY BECAME A POLITICAL TRAIN WRECK. Trying to reform the state's child-support collection operation, he won partial approval from the legislature to negotiate, in 1994, a contract with MAXIMUS INC.
. . . legislature's investigative arm said the governor and the HUMAN SERVICES DEPARTMENT FAILED TO STUDY THE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF PRIVATIZING.
. . . Yet [Gregg Phillip's] two years as head of Human Services have been anything but simple. Mr. Phillips has had to cope with criticism from the social-services establishment who accuse him of failing to understand the needs of the poor. Last year, the legislature's investigative unit found him unqualified for the job; it cited inadequate experience. Legislators say he ignores their mandates. "FORDICE COULDN'T HAVE FOUND A WORSE CHOICE," SAYS REP. JAMES EVANS, A DEMOCRAT ON THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH. "IT'S BEEN CHAOS OVER THERE EVER SINCE HE STEPPED IN."
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MISSISSIPPI'S RECENT SLIP-UPS IN HANDLING FEDERAL AID BELIE CLAIMS OF EFFICIENCY
By Robert Frank
05/01/1995
The Wall Street Journal
Page A1
JACKSON, Miss. -- If the "CONTRACT WITH AMERICA" survives the Senate, Congress will soon start mailing out more than $30 billion a year in checks to the states -- and much of it would wind up in the hands of people such as KIRK FORDICE.
Mr. Fordice, Mississippi's first Republican governor since 1876, strongly supports the contract's plan to revamp welfare by returning programs -- and funding -- to the states. Under a bill recently passed by the U.S. House, Mississippi would get more than $300 million in block grants to spend mostly as Mr. Fordice and the Democratic-controlled state legislature choose, without federal oversight.
The idea, Mr. Fordice says, is to bring the money closer to the people. Compared with Washington, politicians in Jackson, he contends, are far more in touch, more efficient and "pure" in their efforts to cut waste and deliver services. "Just give us a chance," says Mr. Fordice, pounding his fist on a conference table in his office. "No one could mess it up worse than the federal government."
Yet Mr. Fordice's track record with welfare and existing block grants in Mississippi suggests that he is struggling with many of the same problems that bedevil federal programs. The state's DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES, which would largely run all programs currently under federal control, has been DOGGED BY ALLEGATIONS OF FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT, POOR LEADERSHIP, CRUMBLING SERVICES and ballooning costs.
Last year, the agency teetered on the BRINK OF INSOLVENCY.
Mississippi has "squandered" an $8.3 million federal child-care grant on such things as personal furniture and designer salt and pepper shakers, according to a state audit. Block grants, in theory, would put funding in the hands of more responsive, grass-roots administrators.
Yet Mississippi's welfare and human-services czar is a FORMER STOCKBROKER WITHOUT PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE WITH SOCIAL PROGRAMS. And block grants, in theory, would benefit from privatization, with government operations turned over to the private sector. Yet a private contract to collect child support appears to be costing Mississippi taxpayers substantially more than the state-run program did.
Mississippi's HUMAN SERVICES DEPARTMENT is being investigated or reviewed by the state auditor's office, the state attorney general's office, a state legislative panel and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General. All of this, many say, may indicate that block-grant money will be managed just as wisely, or poorly, in Jackson as it is in Washington.
"As a taxpayer and guardian of the public trust, I wouldn't feel safe giving this money to us or any other state," says John Reeves, a 12-year Republican legislator who serves on the state's House Appropriations Committee. "I've seen too many years of good ol' boy politics to know they shouldn't do this without stricter controls and requirements."
Granted, Mississippi has never been a benchmark for quality government. Its history of corrupt kingpins, racial violence and poverty poses daunting problems. It was precisely because of those problems that the federal government took control of funding for social programs decades ago -- and it is why some say the programs should stay in federal hands.
In addition, because of procedural hassles and political wrangling, it is often difficult to tell, substantively, how well some of these programs are doing.
IN MISSISSIPPI, HOWEVER, SOME SIGNS ARE CLEAR.
Riding the same Republican tide that would later change the face of Congress,DANIEL KIRKWOOD FORDICE JR. took office in 1992 with an aggressive plan to sweep out decades of Democratic rule and run government like a business. A millionaire whose construction business had won hefty river-work contracts from the Army Corps of Engineers, Mr. Fordice billed himself as a "man of the people" whose ultimate goal was to shrink government and restore a sense of personal responsibility.
Yet soon after the election, the new governor, with his blunt style and explosive temper, roiled Mississippi politics. On one occasion, he threatened to call out the National Guard to fight a court-ordered tax rise designed to increase funding for black colleges. He boasted that his hometown of Vicksburg had become a success by "fleecing those Yankees who come off the boats." An avid big-game hunter who displays stuffed lions and leopards in his official residence, he now has even-bigger kills in mind: bloated state programs.
His first target: Mississippi's Department of Human Services, which employs more than 3,500 people and serves an estimated one of every four residents. To gain better control over the huge agency, he disbanded its oversight board and turned the department into a direct agency of the governor's office, making him more responsible for its successes and troubles.
His first order of business, and a key feature of block grants: privatization. By gaining the efficiencies of the private sector, he says, government can cap or even cut spending and still deliver the same services. "Once you take away the profit incentive," he explains, "people don't work hard, and they're not happy."
Yet his initial PRIVATIZATION MOVE QUICKLY BECAME A POLITICAL TRAIN WRECK. Trying to reform the state's child-support collection operation, he won partial approval from the legislature to negotiate, in 1994, a contract with MAXIMUS INC., an employee-services company in McLean, Va., to take over collections from deadbeat dads in two pilot counties. An eventual rollout statewide was planned.
The savings, however, never materialized. Adding in start-up costs of about $2.9 million and monthly payments for the first year, the state wound up paying Maximus $9.3 million for two counties -- almost twice the roughly $5.3 million that it had cost the state to run the program. State legislators, infuriated, froze the contract earlier this year in the two counties and recently cut Maximus's monthly check to $400,000 from $550,000.
Meanwhile, the legislature's investigative arm said the governor and the HUMAN SERVICES DEPARTMENT FAILED TO STUDY THE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF PRIVATIZING the service before moving ahead with the contract. Also running into criticism was a Maximus lobbyist who had previously worked as Mr. Fordice's legislative liaison.
"This was a very sweet deal," says state Sen. Rob Smith.
Besides battles over privatization, the governor has faced accusations of waste. The Mississippi auditor's office found that in 1993 the Human Services Department had mismanaged or "squandered" its entire $8.3 million federal Child Care and Development Block Grant intended to provide day care for poor children. Among the uncontested findings, contractors used state money to buy $37.50 designer salt and pepper shakers, refinish personal furniture and put $40,000 into improving a building the state didn't own. After the audit, the state attorney general and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services both launched investigations.
"This report alone is enough to show why you shouldn't hand these programs to the states without better protections," says Steve Patterson, the state auditor.
Mr. Fordice and the EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES, GREGG PHILLIPS , say the Child Care audit is a politicized version of an internal investigation launched by Mr. Phillips himself when he took office. They note staff and policy changes put in place to prevent waste and term the agency far more efficient than under previous administrations. It "was a disaster when I got here," Mr. Fordice says, adding, "All that history isn't going to be fixed in a few years."
Critics charge, too, that for all the talk of efficiency, the Fordice administration has added to the piles of paperwork that Human Services requires. Venus Williams, a day-care center director in Jackson, says that in prior administrations, her applications for funding ran five to eight pages, with an occasional "addendum A or addendum B" for clarification. Now, she says, the applications total 30 to 40 pages, "and I tell you, I think I'm up to addendum T."
Mr. Phillips says applications have indeed become longer and more complicated, to better combat fraud. "Sure we're tougher, and people are complaining," he says, "because for the first time we've got accountability."
ACCOUNTABILITY, IN FACT, IS AT THE HEART OF THE BLOCK-GRANT DEBATE and of the state's management of federal welfare money. In the past three years, Mississippi has been sanctioned repeatedly for violating federal regulations, including making errors in welfare payments or not spending money received. The state was fined $658,429 for having more errors than federal standards allow. It also paid the federal government $2 million for alleged violations in a jobs program linked to Aid to Families With Dependent Children.
Questions have also been raised about accountability in existing block-grant programs. Mr. Yoder, the Operation Shoestring official, says an advisory board set up to monitor spending and programs for a federal social-service block grant to Mississippi hasn't met in years. He adds that the board receives a budget only in the mail once a year -- after it has been approved. He says he has tried to get more specific information about funding allocations, but although he is a board member, he has been rebuffed by the Human Services Department.
"If [Mr. Fordice] doesn't care about basic standards now, he's certainly not going to care about them when they're taken away," says Mr. Patterson, the state auditor.
Mr. Fordice argues that the federal regulations imposed on the state are unrealistic -- and further prove the need to return power to the states. "What works for the people of Idaho doesn't necessarily work in Mississippi," he says.
Mr. Fordice's talk of more-sensitive government, however, appears at odds with his choice to run the Human Services' program -- MR. PHILLIPS. A 34-YEAR-OLD FORMER STOCKBROKER AND POLITICAL FUND-RAISER who ran Mr. Fordice's campaign finances, Mr. Phillips had no prior human-services experience.
His office is decorated with photos of Ronald Reagan and Vince Lombardi and a Dan Quayle commemorative horseshoe. Aside from a few sheets of paper, the only items on his desk during a recent visit were a cellular phone, a beeper and a pair of sunglasses. "I like to keep things simple," he says.
Yet his two years as head of Human Services have been anything but simple. Mr. Phillips has had to cope with criticism from the social-services establishment who accuse him of failing to understand the needs of the poor. Last year, the legislature's investigative unit found him unqualified for the job; it cited inadequate experience. Legislators say he ignores their mandates.
"FORDICE COULDN'T HAVE FOUND A WORSE CHOICE," SAYS REP. JAMES EVANS, A DEMOCRAT ON THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH. "IT'S BEEN CHAOS OVER THERE EVER SINCE HE STEPPED IN."
Messrs. Phillips and Fordice term the legislature's report politically motivated and say Mr. Phillips has succeeded in carrying out his mission: trimming the welfare rolls and state spending.
Despite all the criticism, Mr. Fordice is lobbying in Washington with House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Sen. Robert Dole and Sen. Robert Packwood to push for even greater freedoms than the ones proposed in the House bill. Although Mr. Fordice says the measures in the House bill are too restrictive, he is even more frustrated by the reaction in the Senate, which is in the early stages of debate.
"If they're going to truly block-grant us, then they should just give us the money without having to jump through all the hoops," Mr. Fordice says. "But they still refuse to believe that I know what's best for the people of Mississippi."
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