 |
For a more prosperous, equitable, sustainable and inclusive Ohio |
Historically and through today, Ohio has had trade unions to protect workers from
management excesses and provide a way to collectively bargain for wages and rights. In Ohio,
unions represent 14.2 percent of workers and represent the largest collective and institutional
voice for working people in the state.
Thousands of low- and middle-income working Ohioans received larger tax credits in 2009 due to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to a new report from Policy Matters Ohio. Changes to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) programs brought an additional $376 million into Ohio. The report estimates that more than 640,000 children were directly assisted by the changes to these two programs.
The report comes out as Congress considers a series of tax reforms, including EITC and CTC expansions. The report details the changes including coverage of a third child and benefits up to a higher income level for married families under the EITC. The EITC program is the nation’s largest poverty relief program for working families, bringing more than $2.1 billion into Ohio for some 950,000 families. The maximum EITC credit was raised to $5,657 from $4,824 the previous year. Married filers with children received larger credits regardless of their income. The report also discusses changes to the CTC in which the credit, which is worth $1,000 per child, became more widely available.
Changes to the EITC program increased refunds to 313,000 families, bringing Ohio more than $121 million. Some 304,000 families benefited from the child tax credit with an average credit of $833. The report discusses the household budget impact of these credits. Refund dollars are often spent in the community on housing, food, and education.
Policy recommendations include:
1. Make ARRA expansions to the EITC and CTC permanent.
The EITC and CTC expansions help working families meet their own and their children’s basic needs and move toward financial stability. Returning to pre-ARRA benefit levels would result in a loss of $497 on average for the bottom 60 percent of working families. This is money that would not be spent by working families in their communities.
2. Enhance the childless worker portion of the EITC.
Many childless workers support children through part-time custody, child care payments, alimony, and other indirect arrangements that do not qualify children as dependents on the tax return.
3. Increase support to free tax preparation programs.
A broad method for increasing EITC and CTC claims has been a nation-wide effort to provide free or low-cost tax assistance for low-income families through an effort known as the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. At the state-level, the Ohio Benefit Bank integrates public assistance and free tax preparation. Many eligible families do not claim credits and those who do, often pay high-costs to paid tax preparers. Methods to claim these credits needs improvement.
According to state level data released late Friday, by the U.S. Energy Information Administration,
Ohio used almost 118 million barrels of oil in 2009, at a cost to Ohioans of $11.7 billion dollars.
Since 98% of Ohio’s oil is imported from out of state, that means $11.5 billion left the state’s
economy to import the polluting fossil fuel. Plus, gas prices have risen 18% since this time last
year.
Misclassification of employees as independent contractors strips employees of their legal
protections, deprives government on all levels of billions of tax dollars and undercuts employers who do the right thing. House Bill 523 would provide tools needed in Ohio to combat misclassification. It would clarify and give uniformity to the definition of ‘employee’ across Ohio laws and administrative rules, providing needed protection for employee and employer alike. We appreciate the opportunity today to write in support of House Bill 523.
Presented by Leadership Lorain County on Dec. 1st, 2010, Straight Talk featured Policy Matters Ohio Executive Director Amy Hanauer speaking about “Modernizing the Social Contract: Security and Opportunity in the Twenty-first Century”. Click here to view the event flyer.
Jobs in public administration or the public sector are extremely important to the economy. They deliver services that Ohioans need. When unemployment is high, these jobs become more important because struggling families have a greater need for good schools, social support, public transportation, libraries and other services that are provided by the public sector. Further, when unemployment is high, a more stable public sector prevents a deeper downward spiral in our economy.
On November 18th and 19th, ECC hosted its first Community Engagement Summit in Cleveland. The Community Engagement Summit is an on-going process for developing principles, sharing best practices, and positioning our local partners as the vanguards of a new American social and economic compact. This day and a half-long meeting brought together ECC’s board members, local partners, subject matter experts, and committed foundations to explore the breadth and depth of community engagement.
Most states have laws requiring that workers are paid the wages they earn and that they are paid a minimum wage, as well as overtime for hours worked beyond a specific amount. They also protect against exploitation of child labor. Policy Matters Ohio conducted a nationwide survey of state enforcement of these laws during the summer and early fall of 2010. We asked state agencies how many investigators they had for enforcement of minimum wage, wage payment, overtime and child labor laws. Altogether, 43 states and the District of Columbia provided some answers to our survey. Together, they employ just 659.5 investigators. As a rough gauge, that works out to more than 146,000 workers per investigator, since there are nearly 100 million private-sector employees in these states.
Ohio.com
A voucher program makes sense for students with autism. Now the state must ensure that the program works
Medical surveys in recent years show sharp increases in the number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. In Ohio, the number has soared from 1,046 children in 1998 to nearly 13,500 in 2009. The demand has risen accordingly for services to address the range of developmental problems and needs for those affected.
Few families and schools have the expertise to provide the specialized services that are appropriate for each student. It should not surprise that parents often are frustrated by the limited capacity of their public schools to tend to the individual needs of students diagnosed with autistic disorders.
The basis for Ohio’s Autism Scholarship Program, authorized in 2003, was to maintain focus on appropriate educational services for this group of students. The autism voucher program is a necessary option. It lends much needed flexibility to Ohio’s school system for children whose disabilities as yet are not well understood. For parents struggling to cope with autism, the program offers the essential funding to search out the private services best for their children.
Unfortunately, recognizing the critical value of the program is not to say it is reaching maximum effectiveness, or even close. As reported Sunday by John Higgins, a Beacon Journal staff writer, there are problems that state officials must resolve quickly to raise the performance of the 7-year-old program.
The program pays up to $20,000 a year for a student identified as autistic by the home school district. The district develops an Individualized Education Plan, IEP, which lists educational goals and services for the year and is agreed to by the parents. By law, the home school district is required to report on the student’s progress and to develop and refine an annual plan based on progress, regardless where the student receives educational services.
In Akron and some districts, officials note that private providers often fail to submit required quarterly reports, making it difficult for the district to meet its accountability role to monitor student progress and develop follow-up plans. Another key source of concern involves the wide variations in expertise and quality among state-approved providers. A 2008 review by Policy Matters Ohio cited the minimal state oversight of providers. As disturbing, local officials contend that complaints to state officials about implementation problems go unresolved.
The voucher program is a crucial option for a group of students with few options for gaining an effective education. State officials owe it to them and to taxpayers to address the many problems and ensure the program lives up to its potential for making a difference in the lives of many students.
In All Aboard: Clean Energy Transportation Opportunities Favor Ohio Economy, Policy Matters Ohio and the Apollo Alliance outlined economic benefits that domestic demand for mass transit vehicles could bring to Ohio. Funding to underpin that demand could come from a reconfigured federal Surface Transportation Act, creating more jobs than current programming. In Ohio, 226 firms currently serving the freight rail industry could garner new orders from expanded passenger rail. Ohio is one of the top five states in the nation in number of manufacturing companies already serving the passenger rail. Today the Apollo Alliance releases its blueprint for transportation based job creation. In their new report: Make it in America: The Apollo Clean Transportation Manufacturing Action Plan (TMAP), they call for leveraging transportation investments to create a globally competitive transit and clean vehicle manufacturing sector and create hundreds of thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
