ALBANY — The state Legislature’s top Democrat said yesterday his house will pass a bill to bar welfare recipients from drawing their cash benefits at gin joints and strip clubs.
The move by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — following a report in The Post on Sunday — is linked to a potential loss of $120 million in federal welfare aid.
President Obama’s Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act will yank cash from states that fail to prohibit sinful welfare spending by next year.
“We will enact legislation to conform to federal rules once they have finalized their regulations,” Silver spokesman Michael Wyland told The Post.
Some of the specially designated ATMs that welfare recipients can use to withdraw their cash are located in bars, liquor stores, X-rated video shops, hookah parlors and even strip clubs, The Post revealed.
The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which oversees the “cash assistance program,” even lists some of the welfare-ready ATMs on its Web site.
New York welfare recipients get as much as $433 in monthly cash if they head a family of four and $158 if they’re single.
The state Senate passed a bill last year sponsored by Binghamton Republican Tom Libous to outlaw welfare withdrawals at gambling facilities, strip clubs and other venues of vice.
Gov. Cuomo was noncommittal on the matter.
“I know the issue you’re talking about, but I haven’t really looked at it,” he told The Post.