AID THAT HURTS

"I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you."

"The check is in the mail."

These old saws still produce a smile or two. Hundreds of Missourians smiled after the 1993 floods when they received assistance through a variety of programs to help disaster victims. Now some of those who got checks in the mail from the government are being asked to repay the money. In the case of a Chaffee man, there seems to be enough confusion about how the government handled the situation to warrant careful consideration.

In January 1994 Phillip Halter got a letter from Gov. Carnahan that included an Emergency Management Agency check for more than $2,000. Now the EMA says Halter wasn't entitled to the money because he turned down a Small Business Administration loan after he got the check. Halter's version is different: He turned down the SBA loan before he got the check. He even has documentation to back up his case.

Some 200 Missourians are being asked to pay back emergency relief funds for a variety of reasons, many of them because of bureaucratic snafus. "Things happen when you have multiple agencies working on the same case," said a government spokesperson.

Yes, things happen. And recipients of checks from the government cash them and use the money thinking they have a right to do so. This is a sticky mess, and the government might want to try sorting it out before it mails threatening letters to folks whose lives have been devastated by Mother Nature.