1

For three consecutive years, Nebraska has ranked number one in the United States for the number of children living with working parents, yet child poverty increased by 50% in just five years.

-Annie E. Casey Foundation, National KIDS COUNT Data Book, 2007

2

Nearly 90% of low-income Nebraskans are employed taxpayers but their inability to afford products and services can affect the bottom line of area businesses. As employees, their inability to cover rising health care, child care, energy and transportation costs can affect their stress level and can add to absenteeism. Absenteeism means added work and loss of revenue for businesses.

-National Center for Children in Poverty

3

Poverty is a major threat to Nebraska's future growth (i.e., increasing health care costs, a diminishing work force, social services costs, the high cost of crime, etc.). Opportunities exist to move families out of poverty and strengthen the entire state's economy in the process. An enormous amount of economic activity could be generated if all those currently living in poverty were financially stable enough to fully participate in our economy.

1

In 2006, a total of $203,821,000 in taxes was returned to Nebraska's low-wage earners through the Federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to spend in their communities, benefiting their local and state economies. An additional $15,563,409 was returned through the state EITC.

-Kids Count in Nebraska 2007

2

EITC is the single most effective policy that lifts low-income families out of poverty. It provides them with the means to pay bills and make affordable new purchases, thereby bolstering local businesses and the state economy.

3

Nebraska had 45,000 uninsured children in 2006-32,000 of those children live in families at 200% of poverty or below.
- Parents of uninsured children are seven times more likely to use the emergency room as a regular source of care.
- Children who are uninsured are at a disadvantage in school because of the number of days missed due to illness.

- Kids Count in Nebraska 2007

4

Most of the child population will utilize child care at some point. In 2006, Health and Human Services subsidized child care for 31,307 unduplicated children, an increase of 1,069 unduplicated children from 2005. Deficient child care can create diffculty in the workplace by causing employee stress or absenteeism when employees must take off work due to child care issues.

- Kids Count in Nebraska 2007

5

Helping working families succeed will have a dramatic impact on the state's economic health in terms of increasing the number of viable tax payers, decreasing the amount of tax based funding needed for public assistance programs such as health care for the uninsured and public welfare.

1

As Nebraska is ranked number one in the country for working parents, think of the vast improvements in family life if those parents were not forced to work multiple jobs, but instead could be highly involved in their children's lives. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, nearly 90% of low-income children in Nebraska have at least one working parent.

2

According to the Economic Policy Institute, the cost of child care in a two-parent, two-child home can range from $5,280 annually in rural Nebraska to $9,552 in Omaha or Lincoln. For a family of four living at the poverty level as defined by the federal government, child care would absorb nearly half of their annual income. Without affordable child care, parents are unable to work, causing them to fall back onto full government assistance. Parents rely on child care to earn the income they need to support their families.

3

All Nebraskans should share in the economic prosperity of our state, and we all have a personal responsibility to strengthen our communities. We just have to ask ourselves, what kind of a neighborhood, community, city, state, or country do we want to have?