In preparing his $9.5 billion budget for the coming year, Gov. Doug Ducey found at least one state program that probably wasn't worth the cost: fingerprinting applicants for food stamps and welfare.
Arizona imposed the requirement years ago as part of what had been a national trend aimed at preventing fraud. The idea was to ensure that applicants weren't applying under different names.
But in his budget message Ducey told lawmakers it's really duplicative of other things the state already does, ranging from verifying Social Security numbers and checking addresses.
That's not to say that fingerprinting hasn't found fraud: Ducey said that out of 1.1 million applications, the state turned up some duplicate applications.
How many? Ten.
The governor suggested the move is long overdue. He said Arizona is the only state that uses taxpayer dollars to subsidize the fingerprint requirement for the federal programs.
If approved by the Legislature, the move cuts $856,200 from the budget.