Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Township administration: 1.24 X $$ of aid

Did you see the articles on townships in Tuesday's Northwest Herald?

If you live in Woodstock, you might be interested in your own, hometown township, Dorr Township.

According to the article, "Dorr Township has about $620,000 available for general and emergency assistance and estimates that it will give out $201,350 worth of assistance this year, even though it gave out $57,000 in assistance last fiscal year."

Of the $57,000, wasn't $28,367 for administrative costs and only $22,952 for actual assistance: rent, mortgage, utility relief?

If so, that's $1.24 in administration for every $1.00 "doled out", as the paper said. Some might feel that the costs of administration are running on the high side. Count me in as one of the "some".

While the personal facts about assistance might be confidential (and perhaps they should be), general information about the numbers of residents receiving assistance and the amounts paid out for the types of assistance need not be confidential. Also, age (or age brackets) of assistance recipients and whether homeowners or renters might be of interest.

Transparency is needed and desired.

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