A day after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo vowed to end New York City’s policy of requiring food stamp applicants to be electronically fingerprinted, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg defended the policy and said he would try to convince the governor to keep it in place.

Mr. Bloomberg, speaking at a news conference Thursday, said he knew of no reason not to use fingerprinting as “a prophylactic measure to ensure the public that the only people who are getting benefits that the public are paying for are those that deserve it.”

“There are always people who want to game the system, unfortunately — it’s just society,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

He said he would try to persuade Mr. Cuomo to support the fingerprinting program.

“We’ll try to convince the governor of that,” he said. “I have not talked to him about it personally yet.”
The requirement was eliminated in most of the state in 2007 by Gov. Eliot Spitzer, but it was preserved in New York City at the request of the Bloomberg administration.

In his State of the State address on Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo argued that fingerprinting discouraged people who are eligible for food stamps from seeking them. He said the practice “makes the stigma actually worse, and creates a barrier for families coming forward to get food stamps.”

“I’m saying stop fingerprinting for families with children for food,” Mr. Cuomo said. “Stop it all across the state, and let’s stop it this year.”

But Mr. Bloomberg on Thursday disputed that characterization.

“There’s no stigma attached to being fingerprinted,” he said. “We have 230,000 employees in New York City and almost all of them get fingerprinted. Most companies fingerprint in this day and age — at least the smart ones do.”

He also said that the percentage of people eligible for food stamps who receive them was higher in New York City than in the rest of the state, where fingerprinting is not required.

The City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, who has been allied with Mr. Bloomberg on many issues, sided with Mr. Cuomo on this one. Ms. Quinn has been a strong critic of the fingerprinting requirement, and in an interview on Wednesday she praised the governor’s stance, calling it “a great step.”

On Thursday afternoon, she sent out a statement reiterating her concern.

“Unfortunately, Mayor Bloomberg and I couldn’t disagree more — fingerprinting food stamp applicants is a time-consuming and unnecessary process, which stigmatizes applicants and has prevented 24,000 New Yorkers from getting the help they deserve,” she said. “The mayor should not even think of challenging Governor Cuomo’s decision.”

(Source: NY Times)