Senate Candidate Jim Martin says he is a fiscal conservative, boasting of his efforts to help Republicans slash 150 million dollars from the Department of Human Resources, the department Martin headed as Commissioner until his resignation under fire in 2003.

Jim told an Atlanta debate audience June 8th, “I couldn’t have done it if I didn’t’ have the help of the good people of the Department of Human Resources helping me think through the ways to make that work.”

Jim should now come clean and discuss how he helped his Republican boss, Sonny Perdue, slash State assistance by ignoring the breakdown of the computer system under his control that processed Medicaid, PeachCare and food stamp claims. Jim's benign neglect of that system (ironically called the “success” program) for weeks on end, meant new benefit applications, and their budget costs, were left unprocessed and off the budget books. Meanwhile, untold numbers of needy Georgians sat in DFACS lobbies for hours, returning day after day to sign up for benefits, only to be told “the computer’s still down, so fill out this form and we’ll enter your information later when the computer’s back on line.”

In the summer of 2003, two of Jim’s top managers called WSB to “blow the whistle” on what they described as a “back door” plan to cut Georgia’s Medicaid and food stamp programs to save the State money. One of Jim’s top lieutenants provided the following quote in August 2003: “They’ve (the computers) been down for weeks. Everyone knows they’re down but they’re not fixing it (sic) on purpose. Saves the state money. Everybody knows it, even (Jim) Martin.”

As an investigative reporter with WSB, I documented and reported the crisis. You can view that report at http://youtube.com/watch?v=mH0zQUlw6zM. 

No one knows how many thousands of Georgians were denied benefits due to Jim’s intentional negligence. We do know this: In a recent interview, Mr. Don Massey, DHR’s Assistant Director told me “Once we analyzed what the problem was, its wasn’t’ expensive to fix. It was just a matter of making it a priority.”

That “fix” didn’t happen until after Jim Martin resigned from DHR. You can view the evidence of Jim’s by clicking on Jim Martin’s Secret at www.dalethetruth.com.

Contributed by: Dale Cardwell for Senate®