Berlinger proposed a central computerized registry for every welfare, Medicaid, and food stamp recipient in the state. Planners folded Rockefeller’s fixation with ending the welfare “gravy train” into the system’s design. The state hired Ross Perot’s Electronic Data Systems to create a digital tool to “reduce well documented ineligibility, mismanagement and fraud in welfare administration,” automate grant calculations and eligibility determinations, and “improve state supervision” of local decision-making.20 Design, development, and implementation of the resulting Welfare Management System
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