Loranne Ausley, Senator (Tallahassee, FL)

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‘Foster Children’s Bill of Rights’ in Florida

This week, a Florida Senate subcommittee unanimously passed NewDEALer Senator Loranne Ausley’s bipartisan legislation to codify a bill of rights for children in the state’s foster care system. The legislation compiles the rights of children in the foster care system, ensuring priority is given to their physical, mental, and emotional health. “The purpose of this bill is to place all of the rights that are already in law into one place,” Senator Ausley said. Rebecca Baer, who spent two years in Florida’s foster care system, spoke in support of the bill and “said it felt like she lost about 90% of her rights the day she entered the system,” adding, “at the end of the day, I believe this bill will help youth not go through the same situations that I did.” Read more about the legislation here.

2021 Ideas Challenge Finalists

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The NewDEAL is pleased to announce the finalists from this year’s Ideas Challenge, our biennial policy competition highlighting innovative policy solutions from NewDEAL Leaders across the nation. Their ideas would reimagine the social safety net, create good jobs, expand education opportunities, build more sustainable communities, and strengthen our democracy. This year’s Challenge came at an especially important time to identify best practices, as Leaders grapple with the work of rebuilding and recovery in the wake of the pandemic, and have a unique opportunity to act with federal funds from the American Rescue Plan. Winners in each of five categories will be announced next week during our 11th Annual Leaders Conference, on Thursday, November 18, and be featured in Governing Magazine. Join us on social media to celebrate these extraordinary ideas, and click here to read details on the finalists in all five categories!

Garlin Gilchrist II, Lieutenant Governor (Michigan)

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Reducing Recidivism with Employment

This week, NewDEAL Leader Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist joined leaders from government, business, and law enforcement to announce a new proposal for a  “Job Court” pilot program. The program is a creative solution to decrease recidivism rates by making employment opportunities available for defendants accused of low-level, nonviolent crimes. The $5.5 million investment would give 450 eligible defendants good paying jobs and transferable career skills that will help them find jobs after their sentence. To read more about how this proposal could reduce recidivism and give Michiganders a second chance while also helping businesses staff up, read the article here.

Zach Conine, Treasurer (Nevada)

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Supporting Children with Disabilities with ARP Funding

NewDEAL Leader Nevada Treasurer Zach Conine joined his state’s governor to launch Transforming Opportunities for Toddlers and Students (TOTS), a grant program to support children with disabilities using $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding. Grants are provided through ABLE accounts, tax-free savings accounts that are used to pay for housing, education, transportation, and services related to their disability without losing eligibility for public benefits programs. Treasurer Conine oversees the ABLE program, and has been a champion of expanding the accounts as “pathways out of poverty for 1,000 Nevada families.” Read more about this first-in-the-nation grant program.

Digital Connectivity for All

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Problem

While in the past lack of access to broadband internet may have merely been an inconvenience, it is now a public emergency. Since the onset of the pandemic, Marylanders have had no choice but to rely on access to the internet in order to access critical services, like healthcare, education, public benefits, and work/ business.

In 2017, the Governor sought to address the issue of connectivity through the creation of the Rural Broadband Office by Executive Order. This office has done important work, but there is so much more to be done. The problem in Maryland is greater than a lack of rural access. Our most populous cities experience similar gaps in access, affordability, adoption, and digital literacy. On several metrics, such as broadband upload/download speeds, the situation is worse in our urban areas. (Ex: 41% of Baltimore city residents do not subscribe to the internet and 31% do not own a desktop or laptop).

 

Solution

The creation of the Office of Statewide Broadband (OSB) to expand on the work of the Office of Rural Broadband. It’s purpose is to address the causes of inequitable access – which range from lack of infrastructure to cost – and ensure that every Marylander can be connected to high-quality, high-speed, affordable, internet by 2026.

This office will also be charged with forming partnerships with local jurisdictions, state agencies, our library system, and the private sector to expand digital literacy and broadband across the state. The OSB will ensure that the state has a coordinated response to RFPs issued by the FCC or Federal Government for resources/ grants. OSB will also develop definitions and standards for broadband internet; addressing fair and equal pricing standards; auditing availability, reliability, and affordability of broadband; and collecting and analyzing pertinent data on geographic, economic, and demographic factors.

Brighter Futures Early Learning Scholarships

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Problem

Early Learning is arguably more important than college, yet most new parents are not prepared for the exorbitant cost of quality child care for their young children. The cost of child care also limits parent choice as higher quality programs are out of reach for many. This means those families must choose from lower quality programs that may not be preparing their children for educational success. State and federal governments already support robust scholarships and financial aid programs for post-secondary education. What if these same options were available for quality early learning? The difference that a quality early learning experience has on a child’s overall and long-term educational, social and physical wellbeing is a proven and undisputed fact. Children who access these educational programs return this investment through higher learning achievement, higher employment levels and less economic burden as they become adults. 

 

Solution

An early learning scholarship program that sets aside quality child care slots for children who need it the most: Parents that have hit a “fiscal cliff”, making just enough money to knock them out of most existing child care subsidy programs; Foster parents who currently must pay out of pocket expenses for child care; Teen moms working to earn a high school diploma; and Parents experiencing homelessness.   These “scholarships” should be focused on making sure every child has access to a quality early learning experience so that they can be ready for kindergarten and achieve success in school.    This program would leverage existing systems and expand support for families, which will give them the ability to make the best educational choices for their children at the most critical age, regardless of their income. 

Addressing the impacts of the cliff effect in Massachusetts

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Problem

We know people are working harder and harder but not getting ahead. This problem is particularly salient for our large numbers of low-wage workers depending on public assistance to make ends meet. The Department of Transitional Assistance serves one out of every nine people in Massachusetts with cash benefits and food assistance, but the structure of these programs means that in many cases, benefits are actually contributing to prolonged financial instability. Specifically, eligibility for public benefits has an inverse relationship to income level, which often puts recipients in an impossible position: earning more money can make them worse off if it boosts their income enough to make them ineligible for these benefits. This drop in public benefits that occurs as earnings increase is known as the “cliff effect,” and it explains why some low-wage workers find themselves worse off after a raise. 

 

Solution

We need to offset the disproportionate impact that the cliff effect has on families transitioning out of public assistance and allow them to transition off of benefits without facing an income cliff. My bill, S.119, begins to address this by creating a 3-year pilot program for 100 low-income Western Massachusetts families or individuals who are both working and receiving public assistance. Participants will receive a Massachusetts Earned Income Tax Credit adjustment that rewards work and closes the cliff effect gap during each year of the 3-year program. This bill also includes a savings component of up to $10,000 per participant that would be paid out after the third year of the program. The pilot will test whether the Massachusetts Earned Income Tax Credit can be enhanced to create an effective tool for the state to close the cliff gap in order to ensure that workers are not worse off financially as they move up the income scale.

Maryland Access to Capital Program

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Problem

 Lending to small businesses has decreased in recent years. Part of the problem is that small businesses without substantial/ solid credit have few options for loans. The same goes for those without adequate collateral or a relationship with a bank. This disproportionately disadvantages low-income residents, immigrants, business owners of color, residents in reentry, etc. Financial exclusion of resource-restricted populations in Marylander is a problem.

Another part of the problem is that non-traditional financial institutions in the business of making loans to these populations face high borrowing costs themselves, minimal incentives to make these loans, and little to no coverage on loan defaults.

Small businesses have been hit extremely hard by the pandemic as they have worked to adapt to a remote environment, comply with pandemic-related requirements, etc. Absent access to credit, small businesses cannot succeed and scale. Job growth and wealth creation are stifled, especially in historically disinvested neighborhoods.

 

Solution

The Maryland Capital Access Program (MDCAP) encourages banks and other financial institutions to make loans to small businesses – especially those that have been unable to or have had difficulty obtaining loans in the past. MDCAP creates a loan loss reserve program, managed by the Department of Commerce, for financial institutions making qualified loans. Each time a qualifying loan is made to a small business, a percentage of the loan amount is deposited into the loan loss reserve account by the lender, the borrower, AND the State.

The loan loss reserve account mitigates risk loss to a qualifying lender and gives lenders the confidence to be more flexible on collateral and credit requirements. Further, particularly for CDFIs, the loan loss reserve account can decrease the cost of borrowing money. The program motivates lenders to bank a wider band of businesses with the assurance that losses can be recovered from the loan loss reserve account.

This program was the result of legislation sponsored by Maryland Delegate Brooke Lierman and co-filed by Maryland Senator Katie Fry Hester.

Innovation Alabama State Matching Funds Award

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Problem

 In the State of Alabama, historically there have not been incentives of any kind for startup companies to be attracted to bring their business to the State. The problem was when dealing with STTR and SBIR matching funds, technology startups typically go to the federal level to receive these funds and there are no matching funds that aid them on the State level. In Alabama, when you receive the federal funding that’s all you are eligible to receive. However, in other states there exists a program to match the funds received at the federal level with state funds, creating more of an incentive for businesses to startup in other surrounding states. Through the Innovation Creation Commission created by the Governor of Alabama, I was able to bring HB 609, a bill that would provide matching funds for startups as a means to ensure more businesses stay in the state. 

 

Solution

The solution is simple: ensure that the State of Alabama is able to market itself to viable startups and business, by allowing tech companies to receive additional funding, in this case, up to $100k on the first phase and $250k on the second phase in matching grants.

Establishing a Public Bank in the City of Philadelphia

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Problem

As we work to rebound from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are also seeing with fresh eyes some of the longstanding inequities and disparities exacerbated by this global public health crisis. Equitable economic opportunities and access to capital for many small businesses, particularly minority- and women-owned businesses, are issues that spun out of decades of redlining and systemic racism. Black and Brown neighborhoods in Philadelphia, the poorest of the 10 largest U.S. cities, continue to see increasing levels of poverty and homelessness as a result of lack of equal access to job and entrepreneurial opportunities. Currently, despite Philadelphia having a population that is 43% African American, only 6% of the businesses with employees in the city are Black-owned.

Solution

Creating a municipally owned bank in the City of Philadelphia would enhance the ability of many small businesses and entrepreneurs of color, as well as other grassroots and community organizations to obtain access to capital, establish a lending history, and gain a foothold in generating long-term wealth when existing lenders might otherwise deem them “hard to lend to” or “credit unworthy”.

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