MassGOP rips welfare agency, taste of Nepal and a looming tax gambit

The MassGOP is ripping welfare fraud after investigators uncovered $2.3 million in abuse “in the past quarter alone.”

No word if that includes all the EBT dollars spent in Hawaii, as the Herald reported earlier this month.

“The Democratic supermajority has repeatedly proven they are incapable of managing taxpayer dollars. When they overspend and mismanage funds, they simply ask for more,” said MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale.

We did some follow-up digging since our two-part series on EBT cash traveling all over the U.S. The state Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) reported Saturday the agency has “closed 205 accounts (EBT cards) this year due to policy violations.”

DTA Commissioner Jeff McCue explained in a statement to the Herald that welfare recipients are allowed to travel outside of Massachusetts and spend their EBT dollars to help, but only for “reasons such as visiting a sick family member or attending a funeral, or they live near the state border and cross into another state.”

If not, they can have their EBT — formerly Food Stamp cards — yanked.

Carnevale said the oversight is lacking.

“The lack of accountability in handling taxpayer dollars is egregious,” she said, adding $2.3 million in “taxpayer money fraudulently spent in just one quarter is unacceptable.”

This all comes as state Sen. Ryan Fattman and GOP colleagues Bruce Tarr, Peter Durant and Patrick O’Connor are seeking a probe by the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight of EBT out-of-state spending.

We’ll see where this all goes.

Taste of the Himalayas

The UN came to West Roxbury Friday night — at least one dignitary did.

Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli dined at the Himalayan Bistro on Centre Street with his wife, Radhika Shakya, and about 30-plus guests, the restaurant told the Herald.

Just a day before he spoke to the UN General Assembly about “a looming climate catastrophe, resurgent geopolitical rivalries, and escalating military expenditures, which he said are driving the world toward instability.”

According to the UN’s reporting, Oli added: “None of the global challenges we face today have been imposed by aliens — these are of our own making,” he said, adding that through understanding, trust, and cooperation, “we can overcome.”

He then invoked the philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam from the ancient text Maha Upanishad, the belief that “the world is one family,” the UN News added.

The Menino gambit

Former Mayor Tom Menino, a savvy politician, was not shy.

As we’ve reported, Mayor Michelle Wu’s tax-rate petition mirrors a tiered shift the city implemented two decades ago under Menino. In her initial plan, a 200% commercial tax boost would ease each year until settling in year five into the 175% maximum shift allowed by state law. She has since agreed to sign an executive order that would impose a shift of no more than 190%.

That plan is playing out on Beacon Hill where the state Senate has not backed Wu, to date, but the House did.

Menino primed the pump in 2004 for a similar move when he sent out estimated tax bills citywide that showed both his plan and what would happen if the state Legislature did not pass his home-rule petition.

Would Wu do the same? Some are saying she could use that political chess move as soon as next month. An October surprise in the mail.

We’ll keep our ears to the ground.

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