June 13, 2005

STATE LEGISLATURE APPROVES CHILD POVERTY LEGISLATION

The legislature gave final approval on adjournment day to the first set of recommendations of the Child Poverty Council. The Council, sponsored by Rep. Mary Mushinsky, a member of the Select Committee on Children, was established by the 2004 legislature and produced an action plan for a 10-year fight to cut the state’s child poverty rate in half.

This year’s bill included three recommendations of the Council, which is chaired by the state’s budget chief, the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management (OPM). They are: more aggressive outreach to claim the federal earned income tax credit; creation and use of performance-based standards and outcome measures for state-funded programs aimed at reducing poverty for children and families; and authorization for grants to allow low-wage parents to remain in community college in pursuit of additional skills. Mushinsky said the first two strategies received funding this year and the third could be funded in the future.

The bill requires the State Department of Social Services (DSS) to pursue greater utilization of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Mushinsky, a member of the Council, said the Council heard testimony that our state is under-performing on claiming the EITC. Seventy percent of Connecticut’s needy working families claim the credit vs. 80% as the national average. There is potentially $32 million in unclaimed tax credit for Connecticut’s 54,000 working poor families, Mushinsky said. Commissioner Patricia Wilson-Coker of DSS, who Mushinsky said is enthusiastic about the assignment, will partner with community agencies, banks and credit unions to assist the claimants to use the credit for asset-building. The Department of Labor is already assisting constituents to claim the credit. Asset-building can include acquiring or repairing a car, opening a bank account, or creating a down payment on housing. EITC returns up to $2,604 for families with one child, and up to $4,300 for families with 2 children.

The bill also requires OPM to develop and use performance-based standards and outcome measures in state contracts aimed at reducing poverty for children and families. Mushinsky said OPM may consult with the state’s Commission On Children to identify academic expertise and private grants to help develop these measuring tools. “To reach the state’s official goal of systematically reducing child poverty by half, we must measure our progress and the cost-effectiveness of the strategies we are using to fight this problem,” the representative said.

The Council’s third recommendation authorizes a small grants program for the community college system intended to help low-wage working parents remain in college to gain high-wage skills. Mushinsky said there were parents who were forced to drop out before graduation because of sudden obstacles such as inability to repair the family car to commute to college. “We want to help these parents stay in school and move up the economic ladder,” Mushinsky said. “When we help them, we help the whole family.”