Poverty

Arizona voters will decide this fall whether to enact a targeted tax increase on high-income residents through Proposition 208 (the Invest in Education Initiative), which could deliver a sizable boost to the state’s finances, make its tax system fairer, provide big benefits to children and schools, and boost the state economy’s long-term potential.

Arizona voters on November 3 could take a giant step toward educational equity that would help every schoolchild in the state, with outsized benefits to kids of color and kids whose families have low incomes.

Now that New Jersey has repealed its “family cap” law that denied more cash assistance to families that have another child while enrolled in its Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, the 12 remaining states with these laws in their TANF programs should follow suit. The laws not only have racist and sexist roots but constitute bad policy, denying children the resources they need to thrive.

As states seek cost-saving options to address their substantial budget shortfalls due to the COVID-19 economic crisis, they should consider ways to reduce prescription drug spending rather than cuts in benefits or provider reimbursement rates.

In a victory for fiscal policy and racial justice, California has repealed some county fees and eliminated the related unpaid debt. As other states consider how to respond to the COVID-19 recession in ways that dismantle racial and economic barriers, they should follow California’s action, which will permanently end 23 criminal legal fees, such as probation fees for public defenders, parole supervision fees, and local booking fees.

This week at CBPP, we focused on health, food assistance, state budgets and taxes, poverty and inequality, the economy, family income support, and Social Security.

Retirement accounts provide at best a modest supplement to Social Security, new Federal Reserve data show. A minority of mostly wealthy Americans have saved very large amounts — many times what middle- and low-income Americans have, if they own accounts at all — making Social Security, which covers nearly everyone, a key program to protect and improve.

As President Trump sends mixed signals about his support for a new economic relief bill, states and localities urgently need additional fiscal aid so they can both rehire workers they laid off or furloughed this spring and avoid additional layoffs and budget cuts that they will likely otherwise make to balance their budgets this fiscal year.

After COVID-19 struck this spring, states and localities laid off or furloughed over 1 million workers, more than the 750,000 that they laid off over the full course of the Great Recession of about a decade ago.

States now have an important opportunity to enhance and expand the P-EBT program they built over the past few months to help ease the ongoing hardship low-income families face over the coming months.

Nearly 78 million adults – about 1 in 3 – are having trouble paying for usual household expenses, today’s Census data show. Along with other data showing that hardship has significantly worsened due to COVID-19 and its economic fallout, the figures underscore the urgent need for policymakers to resume negotiations — which the President ended abruptly yesterday — and enact a robust, bipartisan economic relief package.

The budget deal between Governor Phil Murphy and lawmakers will make New Jersey more equitable by raising taxes on the wealthiest families and profitable corporations, providing targeted cash assistance, and expanding the state earned income tax credit (EITC) for working families — and it also will raise hundreds of millions of dollars a year to fund schools, health care, and other priorities.

The Trump Administration and 18 state attorneys general are supporting a lawsuit that seeks to strike down the Affordable Care Act (ACA). If the lawsuit were to succeed, more than 20 million people would lose health insurance, and millions more would face higher costs for health insurance or health care.

Oral arguments before the Supreme Court are scheduled for November 10. As they approach, we have released new and updated materials outlining the damage that would result from striking down the ACA.

None of the supposed alternatives to the ACA offered by the Trump Administration or congressional Republicans have the features required to maintain affordable coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, striking down the ACA would have caused 20 million people to lose health coverage; the Supreme Court will likely decide the case in 2021, when striking down the law would lead to even larger coverage losses.