County Wants People To Work For Welfare

By next month, eastern Idaho’s Bonneville County hopes to start putting people to work if they want county welfare.

The County Commission plans to make indigent people pay the county back for welfare by putting them to work on community service projects.

County welfare costs local taxpayers just under $2 million in the current budget. The money goes for everything from medical treatment and burials to bus tickets home for runaways who end up on Bonneville County streets.

That’s about 8 percent of the county’s $25 million budget.

The concept still is in the planning stages, but Commissioner Roger Christensen said crews could be sent out by May 1.

Only welfare recipients capable of working would be asked to do so. Projects will range from picking up trash along county roads to maintaining county recreation facilities, such as the picnic area at Ririe Reservoir. The county will pay indigents at least minimum wage and cover people with insurance.

The plan has the go-ahead from county attorneys.

Bonneville County Social Services director Jeanine Doney said indigent work crews are a good idea.

“I think people will be very willing to (work). It will boost their self-esteem,” she said.

Commissioner Bill Shurtleff said it’s a common sense concept. “When you take the taxpayers’ money, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to give something back in return,” he said.