NJ Governor Christie Proposes to Reduce Funding for NJ Family Care and Charity Care

 Gov. Christie proposes to balance the budget by slashing funding for key areas of importance to parents and economically disadvantaged families.  Examples of some of the programs in danger of major cuts include: NJ Family Care (subsidized health insurance), Charity Care, and aid to state colleges, and the NJ Office of the Child Advocate.  To see details on these above programs and other programs in danger of major cuts, see below.


sources:
NJ.com
NJ Citizen Action   http://njcitizenaction.org/hcpress20090512a.html

See details below:

TRENTON -- A glance at Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed budget cuts this year:
Education:
• $475 million cut in aid for school districts with budget surpluses.
Treasury:
• Dissolves the untapped $128 million fund controlled by the Board of Public Utilities encouraging companies to use alternative energy.
Pensions:
• Skips $100 million state employee pension contributions. Higher Education:
• $62 million cut to county colleges and four-year public colleges/universities.
Economic Development Authority:
• Dissolves former Gov. Jon Corzine’s $25 million job creation incentive program, InvestNJ.
• Reclaims $25 million unused by the Business Employment Incentive program.
Community Affairs:
• Eliminates the $40 million in funding under the Mortgage Stabilization and Relief Act.
Transportation:
• Reduces NJ Transit’s subsidy by $32.7 million.
Health Care:
• $12.6 million cut from the charity care fund compensating hospitals to treat uninsured patients; all hospitals will lose about 4 percent of their subsidy.
• $8.6 million cut from the NJ FamilyCare health coverage program, eliminating 11,700 legal immigrants and freezing parent enrollment.
Public Advocate:
• $600,000 cut, eliminating the department that also oversees the Office of the Child Advocate

Child Support Payments and Getting a U.S. Passport

Child Support Payments and Getting a U.S. Passport

 If you are certified to Passport Services by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to be in arrears of child support payments in excess of $2,500, you are ineligible to receive a U.S. passport . If this applies to you, Passport Services strongly recommends that you contact the appropriate State child support enforcement agency to make payment arrangements before applying for a passport. This is because:

• The State agency must certify to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that acceptable payment arrangements have been made.
• Then, HHS must notify Passport Services by the removal of your name from the electronic list HHS gives to Passport Services. (Passport Services cannot issue a passport until your name has been deleted by HHS.)

Please note that it can take 2-3 weeks from the time you make payment arrangements with the State agency until your name is removed from HHS' electronic list. Passport Services has no information concerning individuals' child support obligations and has no authority to take action until HHS removes your name from its list.

Please direct any questions to the appropriate State child support enforcement agency. You may go to the Department of Health and Human Services - State Child Support Enforcement Web Site for a listing of HHS state and local agencies.

COBRA, Unemployment, and First Time Home Buyers Benefits Extended

COBRA and Other Benefits Extended

12/28/2009

As part of the Defense Appropriations bill signed into law on December 19, Recovery Act funds will continue to subsidize 65 percent of COBRA health insurance premiums for certain unemployed individuals. The subsidy program, which originally covered the period between February 17 and November 30, 2009, now runs through February 2010 for people who lost their jobs through no fault of their own between September 1, 2008, and February 28, 2010. 
The Department of Labor website has more details.
Also, with enactment  on November 6 of the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009, three other key provisions of the Recovery Act were either extended or expanded.
Emergency Unemployment Compensation
This legislation added another 14 weeks of unemployment benefits. In states exceeding an 8.5 percent unemployment rate (currently 26 states), an additional six weeks of benefits are available, for a total of 20 weeks. In all cases, the $25 in Recovery funds added to each regular benefit payment also continues.

Contact your state unemployment office for details.

First Time Homebuyer Credit
The original provision – a tax deduction of up to $8,000 – applied only to people buying their first homes between April 8, 2008, and December 1, 2009. The cut-off date has now been extended to April 30, 2010. Also, a similar credit – up to $6,500 – is now available to current homeowners who buy new principal residences in the same time frame. However, those homeowners must have lived in their previous homes for a five-year consecutive period in the previous eight years before the date they buy the new home.

For either credit:
• New home can cost no more than $800,000
• Individual buyers must have income of $125,000 or less
• Joint tax-filers must have combined income of $225,000 or less
The IRS has more information here

Trends in US Education: 4-day school week

The four-day school week is a growing trend during this recession. This controversial format is something to keep an eye on.

Hawaii is one of the most recent states to change to a four-day school week due to budget woes.  Children are now off every Friday. Hawaii is already at the bottom when it comes to state test scores, according to an ABC news report.  At least 17 other states have districts that have 4-day school weeks, according to an MSNBC report.

Proponents of this format site the ability to salvage more extra curricular and academic programs, avoiding teacher and staff layoffs, and the ability to save on transportation and energy bills.

However, many parents face challenges with this new format including concerns about maintaining academic excellence, additional child care costs, adjusting work schedules, and paying for Friday meals that might have otherwise been covered under free or reduced lunch programs.

It will be interesting to see how this affects the children long-term and how many other cash-strapped states will follow suit.  It will also be interesting to see how this affects parents with special needs children who will have a harder time finding adequate child care for one-day a week. 

Another related trend to keep an eye out for is the 4-day government work week. Utah, Iowa, Hawaii and many other states have been toying with this concept.  How will the four-day government work week affect the welfare of children? The workers in the state departments of education, health and human services, children and families, etc., will have to get everything done with 20 percent less time to do it in. Source: http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=446862

Comprehensive studies needs to be done.  If you aware of any such study, please inform the Parentspotlight blog.

What do you think? Feel free to post a comment to this blog posting.

sources:
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/hawaii-day-school-week-ease-recession-woes/story?id=8894574
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29664981/
http://www.ncsl.org/IssuesResearch/Education/SchoolCalendarExtendedDayYearFourDaySchoo/tabid/12934/Default.aspx
http://www.radioiowa.com/2009/12/25/a-four-day-work-week-for-state-government/
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=446862

NACCRRA State of Care Study (child care and senior care) available

The National Association for Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) recently released the second edition of the State of Care Index- this study outlines the annual cost of child care and senior care,
details families' efforts to save money on care arrangements, and reports on the tie between employment and caregiving. This study can be dowloaded for free and takes a closer look at the pressures facing parents caring for children in the current recession. 

State of Care Index - Cost of Child Care and Senior Care on Families -
http://www.naccrra.org/publications/naccrra-publications/parents-and-the-high-price-of-child-care-2009

Thank you to Care.com for informing Parentspotlight of this study. Care.com is a fee-based service that helps families to find child care and senior care. Search listings of child care centers, special needs care, babysitters and nannies.

Parents and the High Price of Child Care: 2009 Update

Parents and the High Price of Child Care: 2009 Update presents 2008 data on child care costs collected through a January 2009 survey of Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) State Networks, which asked for the average prices charged for child care for infants, 4-year-olds, and school-age children in centers and family child care homes in every state. This year's report reveals that child care costs continue to rise with costs often times exceeding monthly food and other household expenses.
According to the report, in 2008, the average price of full-time care for an infant in a center was as high as $15,895 a year. For a 4-year-old in a center, parents paid up to $11,680 a year for full-time care. Parents of school-age children paid up to $10,720 a year for part-time care in a center. Average prices for full-time care in a family child care home were as much as $10,324 for infants, $9,805 for a 4-year-old, and $7,124 for a school-age child. Additionally, the report found that average monthly child care fees for an infant were higher than the amount that families spent on food each month. In every state, monthly child care fees for two children at any age exceeded the median rent cost, and were nearly as high, or even higher than, the average monthly mortgage payment.
To improve access to affordable, high-quality child care for all families, NACCRRA is calling on Congress to reauthorize the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), the primary public source of child care funds to states to help pay for child care and improve the quality of care. Additionally, NACCRRA recommends providing resources for planning and developing child care capacity to increase
the availability of child care options for working families; reducing barriers in the subsidy administration process that prevent families from accessing assistance; ensuring that public pre-kindergarten programs are designed to meet the child care needs of working families, and improving federal and state tax codes to help families at all income levels pay for care.

Last Month to file for COBRA Health Insurance Continuation Coverage Assistance Under ARRA

COBRA Continuation Coverage Assistance Under ARRA

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides for premium reductions and additional election opportunities for health benefits under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, commonly called COBRA. Eligible individuals pay only 35 percent of their COBRA premiums and the remaining 65 percent is reimbursed to the coverage provider through a tax credit. The premium reduction applies to periods of health coverage beginning on or after February 17, 2009 and lasts for up to nine months for those eligible for COBRA during the period beginning September 1, 2008 and ending December 31, 2009 due to an involuntary termination of employment that occurred during that period. The TAA Health Coverage Improvement Act of 2009, enacted as part of ARRA, also made changes with regard to COBRA continuation coverage.

WARM Advantage Program

Home » Residential » Programs

WARMAdvantage

Program Overview The WARMAdvantage Program provides rebates for high efficiency natural gas home heating systems and/or water heaters. When selecting a contractor, be sure to ask if they are NATE certified. North American Technician Excellence (NATE) is the leading national certification program for technicians.  For a list of NATE certified contractors who participate in the WARMAdvantage Program, contact the Eastern Heating & Cooling Council at 800-247-6547, or visit www.eh-cc.org. Install a gas heating system and/or domestic water heater that meets all applicable efficiency requirements based on the Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association (GAMA) Consumers Directory of Certified Efficiency Ratings. Qualifying heating systems installed in new homes must be located in “Smart Growth” areas of NJ in order to receive an incentive. To determine if a location is in a designated Smart Growth area, use the Smart Growth Locator located on the HMFA web site and check the State Plan Quad PDF files.

New rebate levels went into effect April 1, 2009.

Equipment Type Minimum Efficiency Level for units purchased on or after April 1, 2009 Incentive Gas Furnace AFUE* 92% or greater, ENERGY STAR $300 Gas Furnace with ECM* AFUE 92% or greater, ENERGY STAR $400 Gas Boiler AFUE 85% or greater, ENERGY STAR $300 Domestic Hot Water Heater EF* .62 or greater $25 Domestic Hot Water Heater EF .82 or greater $300

*AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency), ECM (Electronically Commutated Motor), EF (Energy Factor) ENERGY STAR qualified product lists may be found at http://www.energystar.gov. Opportunity for an Additional Incentive If you qualify for the WARMAdvantage rebate, and you had the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR assessment done on your home, you may be eligible for an extra $900 rebate from your gas company.  Elizabethtown Gas, New Jersey Natural Gas, and South Jersey Gas offer extra incentives on WARMAdvantage qualified furnace and boiler installations.  Check their websites for applications and additional information. Features and Benefits High-efficiency natural gas furnaces and boilers carry the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ENERGY STAR label to help consumers distinguish between standard and high-efficiency equipment. To learn more about the benefits of high-efficiency equipment, visit the ENERGY STAR Web site. Qualifying high-efficiency water heaters have an Energy Factor of .62 or greater. Eligibility Requirements This Program targets residential homes that install a new natural gas furnace, boiler and/or water heater. To qualify for a rebate under this Program, you must: Purchase and install a new natural gas furnace with an AFUE of 92% or greater, a boiler with an AFUE of 85% or greater and/or a natural gas water heater with an Energy Factor of .62 or greater. Install and operate the furnace, boiler or water heater in a residence that is supplied by natural gas directly from one of the New Jersey gas utilities and has a residential gas account number. Note: Customers participating in the New Jersey ENERGY STAR Homes new construction program are not eligible for rebates through the WARMAdvantage Program. Installations in newly constructed homes are only eligible for rebates in Smart Growth areas, defined as Planning Areas 1 and 2, as well as Designated Centers, on the State Plan Map. Please call 866-NJSMART to request a rebate application.  As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has submitted a proposal to the federal government to offer New Jersey residents additional incentives on high efficiency heating and cooling equipment.  The incentives are tentatively scheduled to be offered in January 2010.  Please check back often for details. Federal Tax Credits are now available for energy efficient home improvements.  The program also offers rebates on the purchase of energy-efficient central air conditioning and heat pumps.   Also, learn about getting a home energy assessment from Home Performance with ENERGY STAR.