Latest news with #SB291
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Bill rewards employers for child care aid. Providers say it won't fix crisis.
Children at Mariposa Learning Center in Fitchburg. (2023 file photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner) While providers, their supporters and Democratic lawmakers are pressing for a substantial continuing direct state investment in Wisconsin's child care sector, Republicans in the Legislature are pursuing another route: expanding a child care tax credit for employers. So far, child care providers and some small business owners aren't interested. The legislation circulated in draft form in early May. On Friday, May 30, it was formally introduced in the Assembly (AB 283) and the state Senate (SB 291). 'We really think it's an important opportunity to reward employers for getting involved in child care,' Neil Kline, who says he encouraged GOP lawmakers to draft the tax credit legislation, told the Examiner. Kline is executive director of Family Friendly Workplaces, a nonprofit based in Woodville that works with businesses in Burnett, Pierce, Polk and St. Croix counties. The organization certifies employers as family-friendly 'to support their recruitment and retention efforts,' Kline said. To that end, one of its missions is focusing on workforce-related problems such as housing and child care access. In early May Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) and Rep. Karen Hurd (R-Withee) circulated the proposed bill seeking cosponsors. The legislation was written 'to encourage more businesses to invest in child care in their communities,' Marklein and Hurd wrote in their May 12 cosponsor memo. 'These changes will increase the number of available child care slots and provide more options for families.' The legislation has been introduced while child care providers and Democrats are continuing their campaigns to revive direct support for the child care sector. During the COVID-19 pandemic the Evers administration used federal pandemic relief funds to pay child care providers monthly stipends through the Child Care Counts program. The $20 million a month that the state doled out helped providers stabilize child care, increasing workers' pay while keeping care more affordable for families. When Evers tried to use $360 million from the 2023-25 budget to continue Child Care Counts with state money, none of the Legislature's Republican majority got behind the measure. The governor was later able to reallocate other federal dollars to fund Child Care Counts through June 2025, but at half the original amount: $10 million a month. With lawmakers now writing the 2025-27 budget, Evers, child care providers and their advocates have been campaigning for $480 million to continue the program for the next two years. A survey commissioned by the state and conducted by the University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty forecast closures and tuition hikes if the state payments end. At their very first budget vote, however, Republicans on the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee removed the proposal along with more than 600 other items Evers had included in his budget draft. The GOP outnumbers the Democrats 3 to 1 on the committee. Democratic lawmakers responded by circulating a draft stand-alone bill to reinstate the Evers proposal. 'Child care providers are facing increasing cost to operate while still making poverty-level wages,' said Sen. Sarah Keyeski (D-Lodi) at a May 22 press conference to announce the Democrats' bill. 'This has made it extremely difficult to hire and retain quality staff. [Meanwhile] providers desperately want to avoid rising costs and rates on families already struggling to afford child care.' As yet no Republican lawmakers have gotten behind the Child Care Counts proposal. Instead, the bills that Marklein and Hurd have introduced would make changes to the Business Development Tax Credit, which is provided through the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). That tax credit is granted to reward a variety of business investments and reduces the state income tax that a business pays by the amount of the credit. Currently, a business that spends money on starting a child care program for its employees can get up to 15% of that cost taken off its tax bill. The credit applies only to capital investments, however — building or remodeling the child care facility. 'Unfortunately, we have heard that the current program parameters limit the incentive for businesses to invest in child care programs,' Marklein and Hurd wrote in their co-sponsor memo. 'While many businesses may want to provide child care as a benefit to employees, the current credit limitations reduce the incentive for this investment.' In addition to capital expenditures, the draft bill would extend the tax credit to cover 15% of several other costs: An employer's spending on child care program operations; Spending to reimburse employees for their child care expenses; Spending to buy or reserve openings for its employees at a child care center; Contributions an employer makes to an employee's flexible spending account for dependent care. The draft bill also allows the tax credit for 'any other cost or expense incurred due to a benefit provided by an employer to facilitate the provision or utilization by employees of child care services.' The tax credit would be refundable: Even if the credit totals more than the employer pays in taxes, the company would get its full value back from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. It also would give a refund to nonprofit employers, which don't pay taxes. 'While not a silver bullet, these changes are another step in the right direction to address the child care issue in Wisconsin,' Marklein and Hurd wrote in their memo. Kline, the Family Friendly Workplaces director, said the proposal would help engage employers more directly in addressing child care shortages. 'We really think it lays the groundwork for ongoing, self-sustaining support of child care in Wisconsin,' he said. 'The primary goal is to help introduce new money into the child care — really, the child care ecosystem — by rewarding employers to support the ongoing expenses of child care, because the reality is that the sector needs additional money in it.' Kline said he understands that 'the ongoing operational economics' is a central problem for the child care sector. 'That's why we are so focused on helping employers find avenues and be rewarded for helping defray the expenses that are related to child care and helping support that ongoing operational side of child care.' To date the existing child care employer tax credit hasn't had any takers, according to the WEDC. In January, as part of an overall evaluation of the state's business development tax credit, an outside consultant told WEDC that 'due to the high operational costs of childcare centers, affordability would likely be better achieved through subsidy as opposed to a tax incentive.' The proposal to expand the tax credit isn't gaining traction with providers or small business owners. Main Street Alliance, which organizes small business owners to advocate for state and national legislation, has already announced objections to the bill. 'These kinds of programs and tax credits are often advantageous for employers who can afford compliance and the procedural costs and have economies of scale,' said Shawn Phetteplace, MSA's national campaign director. That leaves out the typical small business, said Phetteplace, who sent lawmakers a memo calling the proposal 'deeply unserious.' Evan Dannells, a chef and owner of two Madison restaurants, questioned how a relatively small business like his would benefit from the tax credit. Of his eight full-time employees, one has two children. Most of the others are graduate students. Directly paying for the one employee's child care, even if receiving a tax credit, doesn't feel fair to the others who don't have that expense, Dannells said. 'If you put the onus of taking care of child care on the employer, the employer won't hire people with children,' he said. Dannells considers the cost of child care a legitimate use of his tax dollars. 'This is why government should be doing this,' he said. He observed that children are required to go to school when they reach the age of first grade. 'Why can't we take care of them from age 1 to 5?' While the tax credit may make it easier for a particular company's employees to afford child care thanks to the employer's support, skeptics of the proposal say that assistance only helps some people — not the system as a whole. 'That doesn't help keep the doors open,' said Heather Murray, who operates a child care center in Waunakee. 'We're hitting crisis mode and centers are shutting down now, and a quarter of them will be gone if [Child Care Counts] isn't renewed. We need the investment to go directly to providers to make sure that the doors stay open.' National child care analyst Eliot Haspel is also skeptical. Haspel is a fellow at Capita, a think tank that works in the area of family policy. In February 2024, the think tank New America published his report raising questions about the impact of various employer-sponsored child care benefits. Haspel views child care as a public good that benefits society broadly. For that reason, he contends, it should serve families regardless of whether they work for an employer able to fund a child care benefit. 'Small business will never be able to offer a really robust child care workplace benefit,' Haspel says. That puts small businesses and small business employees at a disadvantage if supporting child care is primarily an employer's responsibility, he argues. The large number of low-wage workers and 'gig workers' 'also raises the specter of increasing inequalities,' he writes in the New America report. Haspel says that tying child care to a job also locks people into a job — or strands them from needed care if they lose their job. It also disrupts children's early education at a time when they need consistent and reliable connections with their caregivers, advocates say. 'It's really bad for workers and it's really bad for kids for your child care to be tied to your employment,' Sen. Kelda Roys said at the Democrats' May 22 press conference. Tying health insurance to employment has been 'a disaster,' Roys said. Health care is 'rationed based on the job that you have or the wealth that you have,' she added, 'and we do not want to exacerbate the current problems in our child care system by tying it to people's employment.' In his New America report and in an interview, Haspel says the problem isn't providing child care at the workplace. 'I'm not against the idea of onsite child care — that can make all the sense in the world,' he says. 'You can have an onsite center as part of a publicly funded system' — one to which employers contribute as taxpayers. Focusing on the employer, however, carries with it 'an opportunity cost,' Haspel says. 'The more we say child care should be solved primarily through employers, the harder it is to say we need a fully public system that is universal and reaches everyone.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Axios
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Here are the bills Gov. Brian Kemp signed and vetoed for 2025
While Gov. Brian Kemp has already signed into law the major bills that dominated headlines during this year's legislative session, the status of a few notable pieces of legislation remained up in the air. Why it matters: Wednesday was the deadline for Kemp to sign or veto any remaining legislation that passed before Sine Die. ✅ What Kemp signed HB 123: Helps keep people with intellectual disabilities off death row. SB 244: Allows President Trump and his co-defendants in the Fulton County election interference case to recoup legal fees. HB 296: Requires law enforcement agencies to accept digital driver's licenses during traffic stops. SB 291: Creates Georgia's "America First" speciality license plate. HB 426: Requires nonpartisan elections for magistrate court judges. 🚫 What Kemp vetoed HB 308: Allows judges to require people to install an "intelligent speed assistance device" in cars they used for illegal street racing. HB 433: Gives Georgia Department of Human Services employees the authority to access people's full criminal histories. SB 238: Changes Rockdale County's governing structure from a countywide elected chairperson and two commissioners to five at-large commissioners who choose their own chair. What they're saying: Kemp cautioned state lawmakers to use subpoena powers outlined in Senate Bill 255, another bill the governor signed Wednesday, "judiciously and sparingly." "Americans of all political leanings have lamented the ineffectiveness of the United States Congress, in no small part due to the abundance of politically motivated 'investigations' which only generate sound bites and distract from important legislation," Kemp wrote in the only signing statement. "I sincerely hope that in the future, Georgians do not similarly lament the General Assembly." Catch up quick: Kemp earlier this year signed into law his wide-ranging civil lawsuit reform package, a bill banning transgender student athletes from playing on teams that match their gender identity and a controversial measure aimed at protecting Georgians' religious beliefs.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Witnesses bring emotional testimony for, against Second Look Act
Anthony Muhammad talks to the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland about his support for the Second Look Act, which got a hearing later in the day Thursday from the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters) Deborah Haskins' son, Joseph, was shot and killed in Baltimore City in 2013. A year later, her nephew, Rueben, was killed in Baltimore County. But Haskins said she believes in second chances for everyone, which is one reason why she was in Annapolis on Thursday to testify in support of the Maryland Second Look Act. Senate Bill 291 would allow someone in prison to petition courts for a sentence reduction. 'Not all victims are the same. We are not monoliths,' Haskins, a licensed therapist, told the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. 'I decided that, for me, not to pass on generational trauma. I have to heal. Part of my healing includes forgiveness, and forgiveness is not an overnight process.' But for Dawn Collins, the bill would 'undermine the small justice' she won with the conviction of her son's killer. Collins gave tearful testimony as her husband, Richard Collins Jr., stood next to her and slowly turned 360 degrees to show committee members and the hearing audience a large, framed picture of their son, Richard W. Collins III. He was visiting a friend at the University of Maryland, College Park, when he was fatally stabbed in a racially motivated hate crime in May 2017, just days before he was set to graduate from Bowie State University. 'I am urging all lawmakers to oppose SB 291, and the no-limits approach to how it would benefit mass murderers, serial rapists, child sex offenders and those who have committed hate crimes, like the one who took my beloved son,' Dawn Collins said. 'The bill would undermine the small justice that was given in the case of my son's murder. I need to be able to continue to know that my son mattered.' Medical and geriatric parole bill back before Senate panel The bill, sponsored by Sen. Charles Sydnor III (D-Baltimore County), would allow a person who has served at least 20 years of a prison sentence to petition the court for a sentence reduction. If denied, they could petition again after three years. An inmate could not file more than three petitions. A written decision would have to include the inmate's age at the time of the offense, whether they had participated in any education or vocational programs and 'whether the individual has demonstrated maturity, rehabilitation and fitness to reenter society sufficient to justify a sentence reduction.' A victim or victim's representative would be able to attend a court hearing on the petition, or submit a written statement. 'Victims will have full agency and autonomy on whether or not they want to participate in this process. For some it is a part of their healing process,' Sydnor said. 'Not everyone just wants people to be thrown away and forgotten about or feel revictimized. For some people, it is a part of that process.' But Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger (D) called the bill 'The 14th Look Back Act,' since it would repeatedly force victims like Dawn Collins to come back to court and relive the tragedy of a loved one killed. 'There needs to be some finality. I need to be able to say to tell Mrs. Collins, 'It's over. You don't have to come to court anymore and tell your story,'' Shellenberger said. Sydnor asked Shellenberger if there's 'a true finality' under the current criminal justice system. 'The answer is no,' Shellenberger said, 'But that doesn't mean we should add another [post-conviction remedy] every three years.' Criminal justice advocates have said everyone deserves a second chance, especially those who've shown they are rehabilitated. Anthony Muhammad talked about his second chance at life Thursday morning to the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland in Annapolis. Muhammad, who was arrested in 1993 at age 15 on two homicide charges, was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX After serving 29 years, 7 months and 29 days, Muhammad was released from prison in September 2022. Today, he's employed with the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and is a youth mentor with an organization known as Baltimore Brothers. 'I am just one of many of long-term returning citizens, people who have served two, three and four decades of incarceration here in the state of Maryland that are now doing amazing and wonderful things,' he said at the caucus meeting. 'I want to thank this caucus for making this piece of legislation a priority.' The measure, sponsored last year by former Sen. Jill P. Carter, passed the Senate then but stalled in the House. Del. Cheryl Pasteur (D-Baltimore County), who presented the bill last year, is sponsoring the House version this year. It has been assigned to the House Judiciary Committee, but a hearing date has not been set.
