Chip Taylor

Jobs are a cost

not a benefit. If you must have a call center to assist welfare and food stamp recipients, the employees required to staff it represent costs, not benefits. It's in the best interest of taxpayers to staff those positions as inexpensively as possible. Actually, it's in the best interest of the beneficiaries also, since it allows more funds to be directed to benefits rather than administration.

Unfortunately, that bit of truth gets lost in the smoke and mirrors of political campaigns.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A toll-free call center for Missouri welfare and food stamp recipients has been moved from India back to the United States -- but yet not all the way to Missouri -- at a cost to taxpayers of about $1.2 million.

Gov. Bob Holden's administration and contractor eFunds Corp. confirmed Wednesday the hot line calls are now being answered in Wisconsin and may eventually be switched to Kansas City.

The move comes just a week before next Tuesday's primary elections. And it comes after Democratic challenger, State Auditor Claire McCaskill, criticized Holden for allowing state-funded jobs to be shipped to India.

McCaskill claimed credit for the change, which she announced Wednesday before Holden's administration acknowledged it.

"Claire McCaskill has once again provided the leadership -- provided the information that forced change," she said. If elected governor, "I will be a strong enough leader to make things happen."

The Missouri Department of Social Services, which oversees the call center contract, referred all questions to the governor's office. Holden campaign manager Roy Temple said McCaskill had nothing to do with change.

"This is something Governor Holden has been working on for months," Temple said. "Only a narcissist like Claire McCaskill could assume that everything that happens in the world is related to her."

So polticians argue over who gets to claim "credit" while taxpayers foot the bill.