article: Kansas is one signature away from telling poor families that it's illegal to use their welfare payments to buy alcohol, tobacco and pornography, to visit strip clubs or tattoo shops, and to take vacation cruises or gamble on dog or horse races. Swimming pools, jewelry and lingerie stores, psychics, movie theatre, nail salons, massage parlors, bars and theme parks will also be forbidden territory for the first time, if Republican Gov. Sam Brownback signs a bill that hit his desk last week. The proposal would also give the force of state law to some of brownback's policies, including one that requires 'temporary cash assistance' recipients to hold down jobs, look for work or enroll in job training programs. NO BENEFITS: A pending Kansas law would make it illegal for welfare recipients to spend their government-supplied stipends at strip clubs, among a laundry list of other places . NO INK: Kansas welfare recipients who want taxpayers to shell out for their tattoos have until July 1 to experiment with the latest in body art . PARTISAN: Kansas Republican Gov. Sam Brownback (center) is likely to sign the new measure despite strong opposition from Democrats . Kansans, like citizens of many other states, are issued debit cards when they register for state-based welfare. Under the rules of the bill passed in the state legislature, bail-bondsmen would no longer be allowed to accept the cards as payment. Recipients would be limited, for the first time, to withdrawing  $25 in cash per day. Liberal lawmakers complained that some welfare recipients use their debit cards to get funds for rent payments. Democratic state Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau told the Topeka Capital-Journal that forcing those people to make multiple trips to bank machines to pay their bills 'is ludicrous. It is outrageous.' State Rep. Carolyn Bridges, another Democrat, complained during a legislative debate that putting limits on how the poor can spend taxpayer dollars says to them: 'If you are asking for assistance in this state, you're sort of less than other people and we're going to tell you how and where to spend your money.' NECESSITIES: Tobacco will be added to the no-no list, along with movie tickets, cruise vactions and lingerie . I SEE A JOB IN YOUR FUTURE: Fortune tellers and psychics? Out. Job training? In. CONFLICT: Republican state Rep. Kansas state Rep. Travis Couture-Lovelady (left) insists that getting welfare recipients 'back to work' justifies the new law, while state Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau (right) called it 'ludicrous' and 'outrageous' But state Sen. Michael O’Donnell, the Republican who gathered support for a House bill putting all the changes into place, said public assistance should be spent 'more responsibly' than it had been in the past. 'We’re trying to make sure those benefits are used the way they were intended' – on food and necessities like diapers or toiletries, O’Donnell told the paper. The Brownback administration has signaled its support for the measure. It has already presided over a 60 per cent drop in the number of Kansans enrolled in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, known as TANF, during his first term in office. When Brownback became governor in 2011, the program served 38,900 people statewide. Today that number has dwindled to 15,500, according to statistics compiled by the Kansas Department for Children and Families. Numbers of food stamp recipients – a completely separate category of government welfare – have ticked down by just 6 per cent during the same period, however. Poverty rates among children have remained constant, according to the social-services nonprofit group Kansas Action for Children . The clash of statistics has raised questions about whether the state has actually been moving people off of TANF and into jobs. VICIOUS CIRCLE? Benefits recipients were previously permitted to spend their government money to bail themselves and family members out of jail . YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: Until Brownback became governor, welfare enrollees could buy liquor with their benefit debit cards, but now his policy is likely to become a law that future pols will find it hard to undo . 'This is serious, good policy for the state of Kansas,' state Rep. Travis Couture-Lovelady, a Palco Republican, told the Associated Press. 'There's nothing better to get these people back on their feet than getting them a job and getting them back to work.' But Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly countered in the Capital-Journal that 'we pat ourselves on the back that our TANF rolls have gone down exponentially and we say it’s because all those people are now working,' but 'we don’t know that and I’m guessing its not the truth.' Another Democratic lawmaker, state Rep. Barbara Ballard, complained during a debate that telling welfare recipients that they can't use their state benefits to visit swimming pools would give the poor one fewer way to stay healthy. Republicans control both the Kansas House and Senate by wide margins. THe House vote was 87-35, and the Senate passed the bill 30-10. If Brownback signs the bill, it will go into effect in July.
highlights: 'Temporary Assistance for Needy Families' funds can buy goods and services beyond food and necessities intended by program's designers .
  Tattoos, manicures, lingerie, jewelry, movie tickets, cruises and pornography will also be off the list if Gov. Sam Brownback signs a bill .
  Republicans in Kansas also want to limit benefit recipients to $25 per day in cash withdrawals with their government-issued welfare debit cards .
  Democrats say it's mean-spirited and will make welfare enrollees think they're 'less' valuable 'than other people'
  Brownback's administration has shrunk the TANF rolls by 60 per cent since 2011; the law would also force recipients to try to find work .
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