The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - The state will repay $133 million to the federal government to address an error that led to overspending millions of federal welfare dollars, human services director Tom Hayes said.

The $133 million will come from internal department funds to repay federal dollars used to cover overspending by county welfare agencies from 2000 through 2003, Hayes said Thursday.

Hayes said the state will spend $100 million to $140 million to fund a new program that will help prevent the problems that created the overspending. The agency is still determining how much it must repay for the 2004 budget year that ended in June.

"What my agency has been doing basically has been living off the federal government's credit card for the last few years," said Hayes , who repeatedly took responsibility for the mistake in which the state didn't reconcile its accounts.