Hatch: Help middle class families by helping Iowa’s children

The Children’s Budget will help middle class families while creating jobs and supporting employment

Working mom Amanda Young explained how state help with childcare bills enables her to keep her job while caring for her daughter. Young spoke at a statehouse news conference in support of the Children’s Budget put forth by Sen. Jack Hatch of Des Moines on January 4, 2012.

(DES MOINES) A key state senator today proposed a Children’s Budget to help Iowa’s middle class families.  State Senator Jack Hatch of Des Moines, chair of the Iowa Senate’s Human Services Budget Subcommittee, outlined the proposal at a Statehouse news conference.

“Iowans all agree that our children are our future.  This Children’s Budget improves the lives of Iowa children while helping struggling working families and creating jobs,” said Hatch.  “The Children’s Budget targets additional dollars to low cost, high impact services that make a difference for children.”

Amanda Young of Des Moines, who works for a large Des Moines insurance company, said that state childcare assistance made it possible for her to continue working.

“I was being forced to choose between caring for my child or continuing to work,” Young said.  “The childcare assistance from the state made it possible for me to continue working.”

Rene Houck of Radcliff, a childcare provider with more than 20 years of experience, said Iowa’s working parents struggle to find quality childcare, especially if they are using state childcare assistance to make it possible to be employed.

“The state pays far less than the market rate, meaning working parents have a hard time affording quality child care, and quality care providers have a hard time making ends meet,” said Houck.  “By increasing childcare reimbursement rates, the Children’s Budget would improve the quality of care all Iowa children receive.”

The Children’s Budget focuses on helping struggling middle class families by improving childcare services for working parents; improving health care for uninsured Iowans; and increasing help for children at risk of abuse and children in the foster care system.

Here’s how the Children’s Budget helps Iowa’s children and middle class families:

• Helping working parents find quality child care for their children
• Higher pay to attract and keep the best child care workers
• More services to help parents become employed and self-sufficient
• Improved child protection services
• More help for children in foster care
• Expanded tobacco prevention efforts
• More home visits for at risk children
• Medical care to uninsured Iowans
• More support for the statewide poison control center

“Funding the Children’s Budget requires a modest 1.2 percent increase over the current recommendations of Governor Branstad’s Directors of Public Health and Human Services,” Hatch said.

The claim by Governor Branstad that our budget is in a crisis is bogus.  The Democratic budget he inherited left the state with a health ending balance.  In fact, the ending balance for fiscal year 2012 is expected to be $338 million.  At the end of fiscal year 2013 all of our savings accounts will be full and we will still anticipate having a surplus at the end of the year.  Surely we can afford to invest just under $19 million in doing more for Iowa’s children and working families. “

2012 Children’s Budget Recommendations

• Proposals to protect children in programs served by the Department of Human Services
  • Provide increase in home visitations to families with children trying to get off welfare and become self-sufficiency   (FaDSS)
  • Fund child care improvements
    • Fund and increase eligibility to more families.
    • Implement a 12-month eligibility period
    • Fund child care improvements which involve some increase in reimbursement levels and payment rates to providers
  • Protect all kids who are victims of abuse, neglect and rape.  The money will help fund an additional child Protection Center in Waterloo and fund the increase use of protective services throughout the state.
  • Increase the funding to support children who age out of foster care by expanding the services of kids who aged out of foster care.

• Proposals to protect children in programs served by the Department of Public Health
  • Increase Tobacco prevention programs for children and adults
  • Protect more at-risk families against child abuse
  • Increase the Health Care Safety Net Network funding for direct services to families without insurance, rural families who rely on community health centers for their primary care, connect Veterans to primary and behavioral services and fund rural and free clinics statewide.
  • Replace the loss of federal money to prevent the public/private statewide poison control center in Sioux City.

The “Children’s Budget”

The budget request for protecting children is $18,672,956 or 1.2% more than the Department’s Directors recommendation.  There are other priorities for the protection of the elderly, mental health reform and veterans but this Children’s Budget is the minimum we should consider when we return to the capitol next week.  After all, hasn’t every Republican candidate for president noted that the children are our most valuable investment?  We think so.