Louisianans should thank a couple of senior officials, one who’s been on the job awhile and the other a newcomer, for saving the state many millions of dollars, from excess bureaucracy, and from disincentives to self-sufficiency.

Last week, new Department of Children and Family Services Sec. David Matlock confirmed the state wouldn’t take part in the new Summer EBT program sponsored by the federal government, Essentially, the new program – born from the pandemic era as an additional direct cash benefit – extends the school meal programs designed to help lower-income families into the summer when school isn’t in session, although a parallel program already exists doing the same in pickup or congregate fashion. It would provide $40 per child for three months.

While many states accepted this welfare expansion, some have turned it down, and Matlock’s explanation tracks these reasons given by others. He pointed out the large amount, about 28 times the dollars turned down, that the state distributes in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program money, almost half of which goes to children (very generously, which almost entirely overlaps the Summer EBT intended audience; for example, paying for a family of two qualifying for the new program $535 a month).

He didn’t add that Louisiana already goes above and beyond federal regulations by having taxpayers pick up the modest co-payment tabs for partial qualifiers of school meals, nor that the relatively high improper payment rate for the new program’s electronic benefits would waste millions of dollars annually. And, the state would have had to pay around $3 million in administrative costs a year plus additional costs to install a system to handle the debit cards needed that would have cost at least several million more dollars.

Taxpayers also would have lost out in another way. Somebody has to pay, Louisianans included, for this extra federal government spending, either directly through higher taxes and/or reduced services elsewhere or indirectly in higher interest and inflation rates spurred by the additional debt issued to back the estimated $3.5 billion annual cost if all states participated.

Assuredly Republican Gov. Jeff Landry had input into the matter, and only because the recently reappointed state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley made that possible. Although DCFS would run the program, the Department of Education as a partner also had to give its approval, and Brumley refused to do so at the end of last year despite pressure brought against him by the outgoing Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards Administration and leftist media outlets.

Brumley refused to buckle, wisely determining that the incoming Landry shouldn’t be bound for this year to a decision made only nine days prior to his inauguration by his predecessor, nor should he disallow input by an entirely new Legislature that would be on the hook for at least $10 million had the commitment to proceed been made. The federal government extended the deadline, originally at year’s end, to Feb. 15 to facilitate this option.

Plenty of resources exist to ensure adequate nutrition for Louisiana’s children, and where if more aid must come this could be delivered in a fashion much better targeted, less costly, and less prone to distribution to those not actually eligible or to fraudulent use, through existing programs which are better designed to promote self-sufficiency. Politicians and special interests who see government as a vehicle for a wealth redistribution ideology will squawk at the decisions made by Matlock and Brumley, but Louisianans who prize policy that actually improves people’s lives without unnecessarily burdening others should applaud the pair.