If Minnesota's a Welfare Magnet, then is Marty Seifert a Chick Magnet?

House Republican Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, cited an analysis by the Minnesota Department of Human Services of welfare applications showing that 13.9 percent of applicants moved to Minnesota from another state or nation within 12 months of submitting an application.

— "Legislators aim to end 'welfare magnet' reputation"

When I said Minnesota's public assistance spending is only 1.4% of the state's budget compared to the 1.8% national average for all states, I was much too nice to Gov. Pawlenty — and far too oblique in correcting his inference about welfare recipients in Minnesota and their impact on the budget.

He worded his sop to the anti-welfare crowd very carefully.

"In the welfare area, there's increasing concern about people coming from other parts of the country for our welfare system."

Okay, there's increasing concern, primarily among Republicans who want to justify cutting health and human services spending. But what are the facts?

Let me be clear about the headline: It's about the GOP penchant for detecting invisible forces and making outrageous claims based on scant evidence. I have no evidence that Rep. Seifert is a chick magnet, so naturally, I would never make such a claim.

As Dave Mindeman has noted, the Pioneer Press skewered the governor's suggestion that Minnesota is a welfare magnet. The story says:

• State spending on the Minnesota Family Investment Program, the state's main welfare program for families, is down 43 percent over the past decade, when adjusted for inflation.
• While 14 percent of welfare recipients have lived outside of Minnesota in the past year, twice in the past 15 years the state demographer has looked into whether people migrate to Minnesota for benefits and has found no evidence to support that oft-repeated suggestion.
• Minnesota spends a smaller percentage of its general fund on welfare programs than the national average, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers.
• Urban counties, where newcomers might be expected to settle after moving here, do not have the highest per capita populations of people enrolled in the Minnesota Family Investment Program. That title belongs to Beltrami County and others that are home to large American Indian reservations.

Republicans have tried various media ploys to demonize welfare recipients, but when you look at the facts, "welfare" spending is a small and shrinking part of the budget that will benefit ever-fewer Minnesotans — whether they were born here, moved back here, came from another state or immigrated.