Delaware Child Poverty Task Force



Delaware Child Poverty Task Force

March 18, 2008

Task Force Members: Allison McDowell, Rep. Nick Manolakos, Dr. Karen Curtis, Sally Coonin, Judge Ken Mellman, Alvin Snyder, Jack Polidori, Rep. Helene Kelley, Rep. Terry Schooley (Chair), Elaine Archangelo

Members of the Public: Pam Justis, Erin McGrath, Shana Petruccelli, Barbara DeBastiani, Jennifer Rehm Clark, Deborah Clark

Staff Members: Jerry Grant, Janice Barlow, Victor Santos

1.       Welcome

2.       Minutes approved.

✓ Moved (Curtis)

✓ Seconded (Snyder)

3.       Recap of where we are (Schooley)

Senator Doug Racine recommended that we talk to NCSL and collaborate with them on their efforts. NCSL had a meeting in October with a few states and brought together legislators to discuss how to move forward on the poverty issue. If there is another meeting like that, he thinks Delaware should be included. There are not as many states as far along as we are- many are just beginning.

4. Presentation on literature review (Santos)

During research that Victor conducted on reducing child poverty, he came up with five overriding themes:

i. Refundable Earned Income Tax Credit: A bill has been introduced by Sen. Henry. There are 14 states with refundable EITC. Is there a fiscal note with the bill? Yes, there is a fiscal note of 18.5 million (for FY 08).

ii. Child care subsidies: Literature echoes what has been said in this forum related to having appropriate reimbursement rates. There is also a bill introduced in regards to this in the General Assembly, which contains a large fiscal note

iii. Education: According to Policy Matters Delaware funding creates disincentives for local school districts to provide full-day kindergarten- but their may have done this survey before the full day legislation went through. Now, every district which has gone to full day kindergarten does get reimbursed at the full rate. Delaware does good job for the 4 year olds at 100% of poverty or less, but do not offer to kids above that level.

iv. Affordable Health Insurance - Delaware's eligibility ceiling is 200% of poverty level. A bill dealing with this (Maier) 286 links free and reduced lunch with public health. Went through the house last week

v. Protections against predatory lending (mortgage and predatory lending): Delaware has no state law related to this. Delaware has no restrictions on usury laws, interest rate caps, or specific prohibitions. Two bills (mortgage and predatory lending) are in now.

5.       Work group reports

a.       Data and Research: (Snyder) The group has had two meetings, will have a third on April 3rd from 1:30 to 3:30. Want some input from full group in order to focus our efforts. Amount of data that we could collect can be enormous (wide versus deep). What does the data tell us as well as what strategy to use?

Discussion

Make some recommendations based on the data that are politically feasibility and doable. Can this group give focus to the “tipping point”? Modeling of how much poverty will be reduced. Philosophical issue- is it politics for us to target a specific segment of the poor (deserving versus undeserving poor history which decisions have been based). Approach we take is indicative of the data we collect.

It’s fine to target “working” but some strategies have to be targeted specifically to children regardless of who their parents are or else there will be a whole group of kids who get missed.

The discussion has been centered on what has been done in the past- what has been done in other states or what has been successful. We don’t want to lose the ability to think outside of the box- bring in other ideas or other possibilities. Be innovative and look at what’s unique to Delaware. Only caveat- as long as it will enable us to achieve a focus, allows us to look at those innovative factors and not simply lead us into deep waters.

Other side of this- pragmatics here are that the economy stinks. The number of dollars available for the next few years is going to be limited. We want something that has some kind of track record so that we can get some traction with the state of affairs. Not related to a negative, just trying to be pragmatic. The way that we’re organizing the public meetings, is adapted version of what VT tried.

b.      Public Meetings and Outreach: (Curtis) Public Forums will be held Mondays from 5-8pm throughout the state in April and May. We will have a panel that is comprised of low-income people and service providers. Following the panels and a break for dinner we will have round table discussion with all attendees.

“Children” are a political lightening rod which will pick up the media attention and the number of children in poverty is going to spike because we are beginning into a deep and prolonged recession.

Discussion

Will children participate in the meeting? Planning on having child care, but didn’t plan on having children participate. Not necessarily ask children, but refocus questions to deal with more child poverty. Target market of working poor will also be something that sells- not too many agencies which are providing services to do this. Working poor contains so many target markets (TANF recipients trying to move out, women, former prisoners, etc.). That particular target market may be the best investment of funds. To get the training to go to the high wage jobs, that person needs child care subsidies. We are working with local agencies to bring in participants. By large, will get the adult point of view of what gets at child poverty. Teenagers a possibility, but younger there are liability issues/consent.

c.       Agency Inventory: (Archangelo) This is still a work in progress. Work group had a meeting and want to create a chart showing how income goes up, what happens to benefits- are they really better off? . There are some benefits such as TANF and food stamps, and general assistance that are universally available if income is low enough. Child care is only available when there is a need and low income. Same is true for Medicaid and chip, and supplemental security income. Others are available as long as the money is there (i.e., fuel assistance- which the money has already run out). Emergency assistance amounts vary depending on the need until the money runs out and then there are no more services available.

Comments

What do we want shown on the chart? EITC, child care tax credit, WIC (tied to a need, age, and income level). Previous minutes talk about pulling together community surveys that have been done in the past.

Do we put in services (child support), housing (not everyone gets), SSI- child has to meet eligibility requirements to get the benefit- not the parent?

Anyone can email Elaine suggestions for things to add.

Early childhood assistance program, parents as teachers, child development watch, school meal program. Summer feeding program- serves meals on Saturday (12,000 served; 3,000 served on Saturdays). How far do we want the benefits to go?

For example, should we include the SEED scholarship which isn’t income dependent, but has a value? It should go on the list, but not on the graph because it is real dollars and can be assigned a value, but not immediate benefit to the impoverished.

What population of impoverished do we target? Those on the edge who need very little help, those who need supports for a while, or those who are likely to be on more long term.

How to reflect housing because is such a huge issue. Will list it and then let the group decide how to quantify it. Housing can be one of the largest drains on income. Housing coalition commissioned a study- about 14-15 dollars per hour to rent the average two bedroom apt in the state (over 17 in NCC and about 13 or 14 in Kent and Sussex). Economic policy institute’s site has a calculator which will break down by type of expense as well.

What to use as the living wage number- additional discussion will be needed.

6.       Discussion of poverty thresholds:

There is info in the packet handed out today on federal poverty threshold, federal poverty guidelines, self-sufficiency standard (multiple available). Is deviation from federal number something that we want to consider? Will need a fuller discussion on this matter.

7.       Discussion of possible legislation to support:

The task force can support short-term and long-term initiatives that the Kids Caucus is planning to introduce.

We’re all aware of fiscal across the board but it is great to have an agenda to push forward some initiatives. Our impact may be on the other side- where should the cuts NOT be made. What programs need to keep the full amount of funding when it comes to some of the children’s programs, children’s health insurance, social service programs, etc?

Note: April meeting cancelled due to public forms.

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