Conservatively Speaking
State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) represents parts of four counties: Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, and Walworth. Her Senate District 28 includes New Berlin, Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, Muskego, Waterford, Big Bend and parts of Greenfield, East Troy, and Mukwonago. Senator Lazich has been in the Legislature for more than a decade. She considers herself a tireless crusader for lower taxes, reduced spending and smaller government.
One, two, three Social Security nightmares
By Mary Lazich
Friday, Jan 18 2008, 03:15 PM
As Yogi Berra once said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”
December 29, 2006, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue discovered it made a big mistake. The Department mailed out about 170-thousand income tax forms to taxpayers with their Social Security numbers printed on the address labels for anyone to see. I know because I was one of those unfortunate 170-thousand taxpayers.
A Department official at the time told legislators steps would be taken to prevent a similar blunder from occurring.
Fast forward to one year later.
About 260,000 state residents who participate in Medicaid, BadgerCare or SeniorCare had their Social Security numbers printed on a mailing from the state Department of Health and Human Services.
The Department is pointing the finger at EDS Corporation. The Texas-based company processes claims for the state-run programs and sent out the mailing.
The error one year ago had a simple solution adopted by the state Department of Revenue: refrain from using Social Security numbers to identify people. The Department of Revenue now uses separate, 15-digit numbers to identify taxpayers for greater safety.
One would assume other state agencies would follow suit, but that hasn’t happened. The department of Health and Human Services used Social Security numbers and the state has once again jeopardized the private data of thousands of taxpayers.
Adding insult to injury: Wisconsin is the only state in the Midwest to foolishly use Social Security numbers to identify recipients of program services.
EDS says it will pay the cost, estimated at more than $1 million, to have a credit-monitoring agency work with people for a year to ensure that their identity isn't stolen. The state must ensure that none of this cost is passed along to taxpayers.
A third breach of privacy in just over a year also occurred this month with a portion of 5,000 taxpayers in northeastern Wisconsin having their Social Security numbers exposed in a state mailing. A folding error enabled some of the recipients' Social Security numbers to be seen in the windows of envelopes containing federal 1099-G tax forms.
Wisconsin taxpayers deserve to have faith and confidence in the administration of state programs. State agencies under the direction of Governor Jim Doyle must be prohibited from putting Wisconsin citizens at risk of Social Security number exposures.
