Study Finds Drug Testing Welfare Applicants Leads to Taxpayer Savings

Floridas new law requiring welfare recipients to undergo drug tests before receiving temporary cash assistance garnered high marks in a study released on Wednesday by the Naples-based Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), a conservative think tank.

Tarren Bragdon, a former Maine state representative who is the president and CEO of the FGA, authored The Impact of Floridas New Drug Test Requirement for Welfare Cash Assistance.

Bragdons study found that the state saved almost $923,000 by not providing assistance toapplicants who did not pass drug tests. As the state spent less than $162,000 on reimbursing applicants who took tests which found no drugs in their systems, Florida had a net savings of more than $761,000. Bragdon insisted that, if this pattern holds, the state will save more than $9 million in the first year of the law.

Bragdon took aim at critics of the law who maintained that it produced no significant savings. With 9.6 percent of applicants ineligible for welfare due to drug tests, the report found that the program would save the state money as long as more than 1.87 percent of applicants were denied assistance. If the results from Florida reflect the nation, taxpayers across the nation would save more than $173 million annually.