Tax coffers grow, while services siphon them off

[Brian503a]

http://www.middletownjournal.com

SPECIAL REPORT: SHADOW POPULATION

Tax coffers grow, while services siphon them off
By Christopher Magan

Staff Writer

Monday, September 18, 2006

BUTLER COUNTY — Cost is at the heart of the debate over immigration. The cost in human terms. The dollars and cents of taxes, paychecks and Social Security. The outlay of social services and schools. The labor that fuels our economy.

Yet there are no agreed-upon hard numbers, starting with exactly how many illegal immigrants are living and working here.

The U.S. Census Bureau and other surveys don't ask immigrants about legal status.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates there are 11 million illegal residents.

Other groups say it's as high as 20 million.

"You are never going to get an accurate count of illegals because who is going to answer that question?" said Dennis Sullivan, an economy professor at Miami University. "Most surveys don't even ask because they're afraid it will cost them other valuable information."

So can anyone quantify how much this shadow population puts into the economy and how much it takes out?

Sullivan believes illegal immigrants' impact on social programs is minimal. He says a 1997 study by the National Research Council backs him up.

"It's probably in the range of $200 to $300 a year," he said.

Most of the people living in Butler County illegally are young and generally healthy, Sullivan said. For the most part, they contribute to social programs they are not eligible to use by paying withholding taxes and sales taxes.

"Mostly they just pay and get nothing in return," he said.

Steven A. Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., believes the cost is much greater. A study he released in 2004, "The High Cost of Cheap Labor," found households headed by illegal immigrants cost taxpayers more than $2,700 annually. He says their low wages increase the negative effect.

"Illegals do use a lot less in services than everybody else, but they also pay a lot less because they are so poor," Camarota said. "It's not because they don't work."

The main motivation to enter a country illegally is poverty, Camarota said.

Many of the people coming into the United States without permission are poor and uneducated, he said.

Illegal immigrants, and their children, do use social services, Sullivan and Camarota agreed.

Health care and local welfare assistance are the two programs most used.

Last year, Butler County hospitals spent $20.6 million treating indigent and uninsured or underinsured patients. The percent of indigents who are illegal immigrants is growing.

Lynn Oswald, senior vice president of The Fort Hamilton Hospital, said the increase has gotten hospital officials' attention.

"There are more and more uninsured patients in our emergency rooms," she said. "We try to offset it by supporting the local health center and clinics. Hopefully they'll use that as an alternative."

There are federal programs to help pay for emergency treatment for immigrants without insurance. Last year, Ohio spent more than $6 million on hospital care for immigrants, but local hospitals say they don't track how often the program is used here, nor can they give exact figures on illegal status of the people they treat.

The children born to immigrants in the United States illegally are U.S. citizens and able to receive welfare benefits and other assistance.

"The kids are where the real expense comes in," Sullivan said.

Butler County Job and Family Services requires a birth certificate and Social Security card to receive services. Children of foreign-born parents can be signed up to receive benefits such as food stamps and living expenses, said Karen Conklin, agency assistant program director.

"The tricky part is lots of people have children who are eligible," said Conklin. "We may see (a parent) who is not a citizen. It's difficult to tell."

Mark Brandabur, a Hamilton immigration attorney, argues that unauthorized workers are a benefit to the economy.

"They pay in more than they take out because the majority use fake Social Security numbers," Brandabur said. "They pay withholding (tax), but never get it back."

A fake Social Security number can be bought for about $100 and the Social Security Administration isn't required to cross-check names and numbers, he said.

The Social Security Administration withheld $7 billion dollars worth of wages in 2003 without knowing to whom they belonged, said Mark Lassiter, administration spokesman. He said there's no way to tell how much of those wages came from illegal workers.

"There really is no way to do that," he said.

That happens at the local level too, Brandabur said. Immigrants pay local sales taxes and property taxes through rent.

"They contribute to the economy," he said. "If you try to put a number on it, most likely it's a net benefit opposed to a net loss."

Alfonso Cornejo, Hispanic Chamber of Cincinnati president, said his board of directors plans to release a study in October that shows Hispanic people in the Cincinnati-Middletown area have a strong impact on the economy.

"The positive value of Hispanic residents in Cincinnati is tremendous," Cornejo said. "If, on top of this, we include the contributions of undocumented workers, it is even more."

The study, prepared by the Economic Research Institute at the University of Cincinnati, shows Hispanics create $594.8 million in earnings in the Cincinnati-Middletown area.

Sullivan said the majority of first generation immigrants, legal or not, tend to cost society because of their low incomes.

"Those losses tend to fall on the local institutions that have problems already," he said. "But their children tend to become productive members."


Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or cmagan@coxohio.com.

[Judy]

It's so depressing...