Link Card- Tax Money WASTE! on the Peoria.com Forums

I say, go back to the days of government giving food to the needy. Better yet, put the needy unemployed folks to work on state owned farms, growing their own food. They would learn a skill, and have a sense of ownership.

We've all seen the abuse, a family rolls up to Aldi or Alwans, driving a Cadillac Escalade, they load up on food, steaks, sodas, chips, whatever. Pay for it with Link (OUR money) and drive away. Meanwhile, I pay for my food with my money, and drive away in a 10 year old VW.

Worst yet, here's another story I personally witness this every 2 weeks. For reasons of business, I am in a particular 'grocery' store in Springfield. The entire time I'm there, people come in and buy cigarettes, candy bars, booze, rolling papers, anything they want with LINK.

How? The clerk rings in the purchase as milk, eggs, etc. The store owner gets money, and the tax taker gets smokes on me.

I've complained about abuses with Link frequently. I think it should only be used to purchase certain products; not a blank check. I was at Walmart the other day and a lady bought bottled water with Link.

Yep- read your post, which is what got me going on this one.

Unfortunately, I think it's going to get worse, not better.

That's not possible.
Link is programmed to only work with Food items.
However, cash assistance is assigned to the Link card so you can use it like a deb it, which is what may be what you saw being spent on smokes, etc.

But if the store owner is corrupt, what would stop them from ringing up $4 worth of milk and giving the customer a pack of Marlboro's?

Because it's all computerized.
The computer automatically separates the food items form tyhe non foods in the totals

Your not getting it Hip.. They take the barcodes from food items.. SCAN them and hand the customers cigs

thanks. What Pock said.

The store owner is going to end up getting audited, when the state realizes he's buying 600 cartons of smokes and only paying taxes on 100. They will get caught....if you see something, complain. No system is perfect, and for every person that is cheating the system, there are 50 that rely on and need the system to survive. This is a topic I tread lightly on....if business slows down a little more, it could be me on the unemployment line, and you bet I'll be signing up for every piece of government assistance I can get my hands on.

Is the cash assistance also tax money?

Oh sure.
You think FICA is really going to Social Security?
FICA funds the Welfare system to make up for the money borrowed from that to fund something else, which was probably borrowed against to fund a war or something.

So the cash assistance can be used to purchase anything??

I'm guessing it could be.
I know they can get cash advances right at the register, using the LINK card, based on what ever their balance is in cash assistance.

Nuff said- I can't afford my own vices, I sure don't want to pay for someone elses..

I agree!!
And we use Link for food, but that is 100% out of necessity