Latest news with #Carfagna
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Childcare issues lead to annual $5 billion loss for Ohio's economy
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio's lack of affordable childcare isn't just hurting families — it's costing the state's economy nearly $5.5 billion in untapped taxes and employer earnings each year, according to the new report 'Untapped Potential in Ohio.' 'You add all of that up and it just shows that not properly addressing the scarcities and the costs involved with childcare in this state is a really big and expensive problem,' said Rick Carfagna, senior vice president for government affairs at the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. The study is led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation in collaboration with the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and the nonprofit Groundwork Ohio. Carfagna said this is a difficult crisis to tackle because it's caused by several issues. Ohio lawmakers debate whether to ban fluoride from public drinking water 'First of all, it's too scarce and when you can find it, it's too expensive,' he said. 'We just simply don't have enough supply in the state either of center-based child care or in-home childcare.' He added that there are not enough people entering the early childhood workforce. 'It's unfortunately a low-wage job and so it's hard to entice people when you're competing with other industries like retail,' Carfagna said. Lastly, he said there aren't enough eligible families for publicly funded childcare. 'We are ranked the lowest in the country when it comes to qualifying at your income levels for publicly funded childcare,' he said. To be eligible, families must be at or below 145% of the Federal Poverty Level. 'We have an entire demographic of Ohioans right now that are educated,' Carfagna said. 'They're skilled. They're hard-working. They're everything you would want in a reliable employee and they're not even looking for work because they've done the math. They've calculated that bringing in an additional paycheck into their household that goes right back out the door to pay for childcare doesn't make economic sense for their family.' This report has been done in several other states as well. 'Some states have it much worse than us,' Carfagna said. 'Some states, especially the surrounding states, have it better than us. But when I say better it's not as horrible as us.' According to these reports, Michigan is losing $2.9 billion each year in economic potential, Indiana is seeing a $4.2 billion hit annually and Pennsylvania misses out on $3.4 billion. 'They also have greater investments in the state in some of the childcare offerings,' Carfagna said. 'They have higher thresholds to qualify for publicly funded childcare and that's a really key measure that we hope Ohio will take a really strong look at.' Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has proposed several measures in the state budget that could help, including increasing the maximum income for families to qualify for publicly funded childcare, a child tax credit and a tax hike on cigarettes to pay for that credit. 'We want our leaders to know that workforce is top of mind throughout the entire business community and the key to the workforce is making sure that people can return to work and have affordable and accessible childcare,' Carfagna said. Ohio House members adopted their version of the budget recently and those initiatives were eliminated. The budget remains in debate stages but must pass by the end of June. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio Chamber hosts child care leaders to press for state budget changes to help workers and families
The Ohio Chamber of Commerce building in downtown Columbus. (Photo by David DeWitt, Ohio Capital Journal.) As Ohio legislators were working to finish the House's draft of the state operating budget for the next two years, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce held its Childcare Policy Summit across the street with advocates and business leaders stressing the importance of child care to workers and business. 'We can't just warehouse kids, we can't just provide custodial child care to kids,' said David Smith, executive director of Horizon Education Centers. The chamber held the summit for the second time in two years as it leans in to the issue. Its senior vice president of government affairs, Rick Carfagna, said it is 'the largest workforce throttle that we have at the moment.' 'We have an entire demographic of Ohioans that are skilled, they are college educated, they are creative, they are hard-working people, men and women alike, and they are simply not looking for work at all,' Carfagna told the Capital Journal. Before the summit even began, he spoke to lawmakers in the House Children and Human Services Committee, supporting bills to address the cost of child care and the building up of the child care workforce. Language from the bills the committee was considering when Carfagna met with them now appear in the House's version of the state budget. House Bill 2 aimed to establish the 'Child Care Cred Program,' to split the cost of child care three ways: funding from the state, a share from employers, and the rest from employees who are eligible for the child care. Another part of the new draft budget is a Child Care Recruitment and Mentorship Grant Program to help 'increase the number of licensed child care providers in Ohio and assist recruited entities and individuals,' according to the budget language released this week. It contains a $3.2 million appropriation in fiscal year 2026 for 'child care provider recruitment.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Smith was part of a panel discussion about the 'workforce behind the workforce,' child care workers who take care of children so their parents can go to school or maintain their place in the workforce. Meanwhile, Ohioans have been having trouble staying in the workforce because of the lack of affordable child care and lack of access to any child care at all in some regions of the state. Advocates in and out of Tuesday's summit have said raising the eligibility level for Publicly Funded Child Care and reimbursement rates for child care workers should be top of mind for lawmakers if they want to help the situation. In the Ohio House's version of the budget, the Publicly Funded Child Care eligibility remained at the current level of 145% of the federal poverty line, rather than the governor's proposal — and the one child care advocates hoped for — of 200%. In Ohio, the federal poverty level for a family of four is $32,150 a year. Carfagna said the chamber hoped the federal poverty level would be increased, but 'that alone isn't good enough.' As a former a lawmaker who's gone through the budget process, Carfagna said he understands there are numerous priorities being dealt with in the budget, and that legislators have to weigh them. 'There are a lot of big price-tag issues that all just kind of hit you from different corners, so legislators, probably rightfully so, need to be careful to not overpromise,' he said. One big item that has been widely supported by child advocates all over the state was a proposal by Gov. Mike DeWine in his executive budget to create a refundable income tax credit of up to $1,000 for Ohio children up to age 6. That provision did not make it to the House draft. The Child Care Voucher Program, a previously existing program that subsidizes some children's admission into qualified child care centers, did have its eligibility brought to 200% of the federal poverty line in the House budget draft. According to the budget document, however, the voucher program would have a budget of $50 million for each year of the biennium, rather than the previous proposal of $75 million in fiscal year 2026, and $150 million in 2027. In addition to a lack of affordability and access is a problem in which the staffing needed to take care of young children is just not there, advocates said. Tami Lunan, organizing director for the Ohio-based CEO Project who was not part of the summit but has been testifying in favor of child care measures at the Statehouse as part of the the budget process. She said new money for the child care sector should go directly to providers. 'We want to see something transformational, and I think looking to our workforce is a big part of that,' Lunan said. Lunan said the industry already has low wages and high turnover, and continuing to underfund the staff maintains the narrative that the workforce is not as important as in other professions. 'I think that's by design that we're not investing in it,' Lunan said. 'Because we don't see those businesses as viable, we don't see those workers as professionals. They look to them more as babysitters.' According to a 2024 analysis by Policy Matters Ohio, Black Ohioans are more likely to be child care workers, making up 18.8% of the industry's workforce, despite only making up 12.5% of the state population that year. The Ohio legislature has heard testimony from several child care workers, advocates, and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce about the need to incentivize work in the child care sector, and improve pay and benefits for those workers. Traditional business solutions won't work for child care providers, said Chris Angellatta, CEO of the Ohio Child Care Resource & Referral Association. 'We have challenges that are very different,' Angellatta said. 'We can't just compete in the labor market and continue to pay people more and just expect families to continue to pay more. It's already expensive.' To help care providers, the House budget draft has a provision to calculate Publicly Funded Child Care based on a child's enrollment with a provider, rather than basing it on the child's attendance. That's something Angellatta said would be 'critical' for both families and providers. 'We all know that just because someone is not in attendance doesn't mean that spot isn't saved for them,' he said. An Early Childhood Education Grant Program to 'invest in Ohio's early learning and development programs' including licensed child care centers, licensed family child care homes, and licensed preschools is included in the House budget draft as well. Eligibility goes up to 200% of the federal poverty line. Discussions about child care in Ohio come down to one primary theme: It can't be fixed by one bill or one source of funding. Instead, the state and everyone involved in decision making have to implement multi-step strategies to improve the start of children's education and the building of a new workforce. 'If you really want to do this, you have to do it in a three-dimensional manner,' Carfagna said. 'You have to attack it from the eligibility standpoint, the capacity side of it, and we need people to staff our child care centers.' For Lunan, the problem can be looked at very simply by those who hold the state's funding decisions in their hands. 'We literally can not have a thriving economy without child care,' she said. The House budget will now move to the Ohio Senate, which will draft its own budget. The two drafts will need to be reconciled before the end of June, when a budget must be sent to DeWine for his signature. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
USHL Alum Signs NHL Contract With Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers have signed former Green Bay Gamblers and Sioux City Musketeers defenseman Damien Carfagna to a two-year entry-level contract, which will begin in the 2025-26 season. The 22-year-old left-shot blueliner spent the past two seasons playing college hockey at Ohio State University. He skated in 72 games for the Buckeyes and recorded nine goals with 25 assists for 34 points. Carfagna's seven goals over 38 games in 2024-25 were a team-high among Buckeyes defensemen, while his 21 assists and 28 points ranked second. Ohio State was eliminated in the first round of the NCAA championship tournament by Boston University. The Wood-Ridge, New Jersey native began his NCAA career at the University of New Hampshire in 2022-23. He made 35 appearances as a freshman, tallying six goals with 10 assists. Carfagna played two USHL seasons between the Gamblers and Musketeers. He won a Clark Cup Championship with Sioux City in 2021-22 and made the USHL Third All-Star Team. In 111 USHL games during those two seasons, Carfagna totaled 66 points (12-54-66).
Axios
25-03-2025
- Business
- Axios
Inside a fired fitness trainer's legal fight against Fisher Island
A fitness trainer at Fisher Island who was fired last year is suing the luxe residential club, accusing it of racial discrimination. The big picture: The island community — accessible only by boat or helicopter — is one of the wealthiest ZIP codes in America and a source of palace intrigue, legal fights and celebrity gossip. Driving the news: Shebah Carfagna, who says she was the only Black woman working as a trainer on Fisher Island, alleges in a lawsuit filed last year that the club "terminated her because she is a black woman who objected to her mistreatment." District Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz II in January dismissed two counts from the suit and sent another to arbitration. A fourth count — alleging the club's actions "demonstrate an intent to discriminate against Carfagna on the basis of her race" — remains pending. Carfagna, who worked on Fisher Island for 14 years through her Panache Fitness brand, alleges that the club: Directed clients away from her and her life partner, a Black man who also works on Fisher Island as a trainer. Prevented her from teaching certain classes she was certified to teach. Withheld payments owed to her and harassed and intimidated her. The other side: Fisher Island Club issued a statement to Axios denying the allegations and saying it ended its business relationship with Panache Fitness "for legitimate business reasons." "The Club is disappointed that last year Ms. Carfagna filed a lawsuit alleging that this decision was unlawful," the club said. "However, the Club is committed to continue to address such allegations through the appropriate legal channels as the allegations are unfounded and without merit." The club ended its contract with Panache Fitness in April 2024, alleging that Carfagna offered virtual fitness classes without club approval and that trainers and guests had complained about her, according to Carfagna's lawsuit. In her lawsuit, filed last June but not previously reported, Carfagna argues her firing was retaliation for raising concerns about a "hostile" work environment. The club's reasons for firing her were "entirely contrived," her lawsuit says. Zoom in: The club allowed white trainers to hold virtual classes, the lawsuit says. The wife of a Fisher Island board member attended Carfagna's virtual classes and emailed the club to ask that Carfagna be hired back, the suit says. (In a legal filing, Fisher Island attorneys did not dispute this.) Carfagna said the club's complaints were inconsistent with her "impeccable" reputation and said many other club members sent emails to management opposing her firing. What they're saying: Carfagna's attorney, Jonathan Minsker, tells Axios that Fisher Island Club's actions are "both shameful and illegal." "Ms. Carfagna did not want this fight, and she did not ask for it, but she will not be bullied," he said in a statement. "She intends to fully vindicate her rights and hopefully prevent the Club's management from doing this to others." What's next: Fisher Island this month filed a motion asking the judge to rule in its favor on the lawsuit's sole remaining count, which would end the suit.
