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Policy Matters Ohio

June 2014 Ohio CASH E-news

July 01, 2014

June 2014 Ohio CASH E-news

July 01, 2014

Ohio CASH 2nd Quarter Meeting Follow-up

The June 19 Ohio CASH quarterly meeting discussed crucial advances and setbacks in county, state, and Supreme Court action related to helping low-income families save. Ken Surratt of the Cuyahoga County Savings Plan discussed the county’s groundbreaking work in starting a college savings plan and described some challenges and best practices for implementation.  Linda Cook of the Ohio Poverty Law Center presented a brief history of payday lending in Ohio and discussed the recent extremely troubling Ohio Supreme Court decision on payday lending.  Kalitha Williams of Policy Matters Ohio spoke briefly about the expansion of Ohio’s state earned income tax credit from 5%  to 10% -- while expansion is positive, because the credit is still not refundable,  it will do little to help the poorest working Ohioans. 

Download Ken Surratt's college savings plan presentation slides

Download Linda Cook's history of payday lending presentation slides

Follow up on Employment Credit Checks

On June 10, Ohio CASH hosted Discredited: Employment Credit Checks,  a webinar focused on a growing hiring practice that keeps qualified workers from getting jobs. Amy Traub of the national think tank Demos shared research discussing this growing problem.  Melissa Broome of the Job Opportunities Task Force discussed how advocates passed legislation to eliminate the practice in Maryland. Kalitha Williams of Policy Matters asked participants to join an effort to address the issue through pending legislation in Ohio.

Download Ohio CASH's Discredited webinar presentation slides

News from CFED

CFED, a national organization focused on asset building and financial stability, hosted The Nuts & Bolts of a Financial Coaching Program,  a webinar on financial coaching as a strategy for helping low- and moderate-income individuals build financial capability. The presenters talked about what financial coaching is, described the options for training financial coaches, conducted a live demonstration, and answered some great questions from participants.  You can view the webinar here and the slides here.

CFED and the Assets & Opportunity Network are hiring! There are two positions open and they are both based in  Washington, DC:   

The Senior State & Local Policy Manager will lead a new multi-state policy advocacy initiative.  

×          The State & Local Policy Manager will research and analyze existing policies and practices, and explore policy innovations.            

The 2014 Assets Learning Conference, Platforms for Prosperity, will take place September 17-19, 2014 in Washington, DC. Mark your calendars and stay tuned for details.  The conference is sponsored by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), a multi-faceted organization working at the local, state and federal levels to create economic opportunity that alleviates poverty.  CFED is the leading national asset building organization.  The conference will convene asset building practitioners from all over the country. 

Scammer gets $1.5 million in tax refunds 

A federal judge sentenced a Columbus man to 11 years in prison for setting up fake charities to steal identities and using those identities to steal $1.5 million in tax refunds.  The judge found that the suspect stole the identities to file more than 500 fake income-tax returns online between January 2010 and February 2013 and then kept the refunds.

The scam started with an advertisement for a fake charity that offered to provide financial help to people in need.  Those who contacted the charity were asked for  names and Social Security numbers, which were used to file the illegal returns without their knowledge.  

Read the full article here 

Share Your News with Ohio CASH

If you have any news you would like to share with the Ohio CASH network for release in a future E-news, please send it to Kalitha Williams at kwilliams@policymattersohio.org

 

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