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Economic Security Bulletin
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Unemployment was down in every county across Michigan in the fourth quarter of 2010 compared with the fourth quarter of 2009, according to the latest Economic Security Bulletin (pdf).
At the same time, food assistance was up in all counties. The incongruity was the basis of several news articles examining the trend. Some people have become discouraged and are no longer counted in the unemployment rate while others are employed but at lower wages. Check out your county’s trend.
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League analyst featured on national website
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Volunteers needed for Star Power 2011
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Volunteers are needed for Star Power 2011, the May 19 event hosted by the Early Childhood Investment Corporation at the Capitol in Lansing. This is the fifth year for this event where parents, child care workers, educators, business leaders and children speak to those decision makers who directly impact
our youngest learners.
This year’s attendance is expected to exceed 3,600. Hosting an event of this size requires the help of many volunteers. Volunteer opportunities
include assisting with children’s activities and games; food distribution; parade monitors; set up and more. Contact Sheryl Johnston at
sjohnston@ecic4kids.org
or 517-371-9000 ext. 208.
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Note from Gilda Z. Jacobs
Raindrops keep falling on my head
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| President & CEO Gilda Z. Jacobs |
I sincerely want Gov. Snyder and his administration to be successful. I truly do, but I am having a very hard time figuring out why an unexpected $300 million to $500 million in our state coffers will be squirreled away in the Rainy Day Fund.
Isn’t it already raining? Isn’t it thundering? Aren’t we swimming in financial flood waters? Aren’t folks being swept away by the economic currents that have left so many Michiganders homeless, on food assistance, and jobless?
When times are tough as they have been in our great state for so long, it is not the time to be giving huge tax cuts to businesses while cutting services and dollars for education and at the same time raising taxes on those that can least afford them. It seems so counterintuitive, especially when we have a way to help relieve some of the suffering in the state by using all or a portion of this “found” money to restore some of the drastic cuts that have been proposed. Isn’t this exactly what a Rainy Day Fund is designed to do?
Unfortunately, most of Gov. Snyder’s plan for Michigan’s future is predicated on improving the economy through massive business tax cuts. Yet, studies show that business tax cuts don’t bring jobs. Studies also show that children who grow up in poverty will most likely grow up to be adults in poverty, will drop out of high school, will need to access our safety net programs, and may eventually end up in the corrections system. So where should we as a state be making our investments?
Economic gardening can come in many forms and can be “sprinkled” with help from the Rainy Day Fund.I think we’ve been missing the boat by not looking at poverty reduction as a way to help balance our budget, create new, educated workers, and plan for a healthier economic future. We should work on this long-term strategy, use the extra money in our coffers to ease some of the immediate pain, make targeted investments in human capital, and make sure that shared sacrifice does not put unsustainable burdens on those that can least afford them.
The Michigan League for Human Services stands ready to work with the administration on this long-term vision.
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Update on EITC battle
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The Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit was gutted in an April
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| We are the Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit |
28 vote as part of the House-approved budget plan, though four GOP members joined Democrats in an unsuccessful attempt to restore the EITC. The debate now moves to the Senate. The plan includes massive tax breaks for businesses and tax increases for the working poor and other individuals. See the press release: House votes for dramatic increase in taxes on working families.
National Public Radio covered the issue and the Oakland Press ran a powerful commentary.
The League is working on a plan to use some of the $104 million offered by the adminstration for low-income taxpayers to restore a portion of the EITC. That $104 million includes a child credit of $25 per child for those qualifying for the federal EITC and enhanced credits for low-income homeowners or renters. Redirecting it to the EITC would better target needy families.
See the League’s analysis (pdf) on how low-income taxpayers will lose under the House-approved plan. For example, a family of three (one parent, two children) earning $25,500 would get a refund of $54 instead of $511 under the plan, a 90 percent change.
For more information, go to www.saveoureitc.com. For a DVD copy of the EITC video featured at the top of this article, call the League at (517) 487-5436.
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Cash assistance 48-month limit
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 Substitutes for House Bills 4409 (pdf) and 4410 (pdf) would end cash assistance for an estimated 12,600 of the state’s poorest families with children.
The League is joining the Center for Civil Justice and other advocates to argue that the existing 48-month limit should continue with the exemptions in current law. The law has common sense sanctions, and it hasn’t been in place long enough to be fully implemented. Also, now is not the time to dump struggling families with children as Michigan continues to deal with double-digit unemployment.
See CCJ’s two-page executive summary (pdf) and a longer analysis (pdf).
Also, see the blog by Peter Ruark: Don’t punish the poor who are playing by the rules.
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June 16: Moving Up, Not Out
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The League’s next policy forum, from 1-3:30 p.m. June 16 at the Radisson Hotel in Lansing, will feature the release of a new paper by New York City-based Demos: Building Michigan’s Future Middle Class: Addressing the Challenges Facing Young Adults.
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| Singh |
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| Glazer |
Presenting will be Demos Vice President Tamara Draut, Michigan State University Economist Charles Ballard, Michigan Future, Inc. President Lou Glazer and New Economy Initiative Senior Consultant Sam Singh.
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| Ballard |
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| Draut |
Sign up now (pdf) for what promises to be a riveting afternoon focusing on the future of Michigan’s young adults. |
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Budget by bullies; used clothes
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 The League protested as the first wave of cuts targeting low-income children, adults with disabilities and people without health insurance were passed.
”The cuts lawmakers are making are so mean-spirited that you almost have to ask: Are the cuts crafted by bullies who are deliberately targeting kids and others who can’t fight back?” Gilda Z. Jacobs asked in an April 19 press release about the cuts.The Detroit Free Press also ran a commentary by Karen Holcomb-Merrill on the cuts.
In addition, the League was quoted in the mainstream media that logged hundreds of online comments and in dozens of blogs after Jacobs reacted with distress to a Senate plan that would require children on cash assistance to shop only at thrift stores with their annual back-to-school clothing allowance. After the ruckus, Sen. Bruce Caswell changed his mind and allowed a gift card to be used by participating retailers in addition to thrift stores.
The House plan is far worse — it would cut the $79 clothing allowance completely for most children, eliminating it for 124,000 of the state’s poorest kids. Only 36,000 kids who live with relatives and receive cash assistance would get the allowance, cutting nearly $10 million from the Department of Human Services budget.
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African American unemployment at levels of Great Depression
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A new report from the Washington D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute finds a distressingly high unemployment rate for African Americans in Michigan that rivals unemployment rates logged during the Great Depression.
It calls for federal job creation projects to end the disparity.
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Federal electronic benefits news
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The U.S. Department of the Treasury now requires all federal benefit and nontax payments to be paid electronically.
If you are applying for Social Security, Veterans benefits or other federal benefits on or after May 1, 2011, you will receive your payments electronically starting with their first payment.If you are currently receiving federal benefit checks, you will need to switch to an electronic payment option by March 1, 2013.
For more information, visit www.GoDirect.org.
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