Poverty panel: Double tax credit

• By SARAH CHACKO
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Feb 7, 2009 - Page: 9A - UPDATED: 12:15 a.m.

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Doubling the state Earned Income Tax Credit would help pull more Louisiana children out of poverty, a task force charged with cutting child poverty in half by 2018 decided Friday.

The Louisiana Child Poverty Prevention Council made an increase in the state’s tax credit one of a handful of recommendations due by March to address poverty in the state.

Currently, the state’s earned income tax credit is from 3.5 percent of the federal credit. The council recommends raising it to 7 percent.

In dollar terms, the federal tax credit is the nation’s largest anti-poverty initiative. An increase in the state credit would mean more money for some low-income workers.

The recommendations must be approved by a joint meeting of the state Senate and House health and welfare committees.

The total cost for all nine recommendations made Friday is about $136.6 million.

“They are just pieces,” said Carmen Weisner, a member of the Louisiana Children’s Cabinet Advisory Board. “And I don’t know if these collective pieces will get us to where the council is charged with going.”

But the programs have to be put in the context of pulling families, not just children, out of poverty, said Pam Monroe, an LSU professor and director of the LSU Poverty Center Initiative.

“Children aren’t poor,” Monroe said. “Their families are poor, the context in which they are being reared is poor.”

The recommendations include:

• Expand the Early Childhood Supports and Services program, which is currently available in 13 of the state’s 64 parishes.

The program serves children from birth to age five who are considered at-risk of developing social, emotional or developmental problems.

• Expand the Nurse-Family Partnership program, which serves first-time mothers who are below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

The program serves 15 percent of the eligible women in the state. The goal is to serve 50 percent of the eligible women.

• Integrate the public LA4 pre-kindergarten program and Louisiana’s new rating system for private child care centers.

The state is already expanding LA4. The council recommends integrating the program with Head Start and private child care centers.

• Expand income eligibility for the state’s child care assistance program from 200 percent of the federal poverty level to 300 percent.

The federal poverty measure for a family of four in 2008 was $21,200.

The council also recommended improving the quality of the state’s parenting education program, redesigning high school dropout prevention and recovery programs to include work experience and dual enrollment, and expanding programs for at-risk students to more schools.

State Rep. Kay Katz, chairwoman of the House Health and Welfare Committee, said the recommendations are good, but there may be fundamental challenges to their implementation.

The LA4 program requires two certified teachers per class, said Katz, R-Monroe. But some regular school classes now do not have certified teachers, she said.