SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 18

53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2017

INTRODUCED BY

Gerald Ortiz y Pino

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING CERTAIN STATE AGENCIES TO PROVIDE TO THE LEGISLATIVE FINANCE COMMITTEE INFORMATION REGARDING ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR FAMILY SUPPORT SERVICES.

     WHEREAS, one in five New Mexicans lives on an income at or below the federal poverty level, thereby making New Mexico the second-poorest state in the nation and the state with the highest rate of childhood poverty; and

     WHEREAS, people living in poverty experience difficulty paying for the basic necessities of life: shelter, food, transportation to and from work, health care and child care; and

     WHEREAS, people living in poverty rely on family support services, including temporary assistance for needy families, the supplemental nutrition assistance program, the child care assistance program and medicaid, to support their families; and

     WHEREAS, the child care assistance program currently serves seventeen thousand five hundred New Mexico children; and

     WHEREAS, family support services are intended to provide support on a temporary basis, helping to lift individuals and families out of poverty and transitioning families from reliance on public benefits to self-sufficiency; and

     WHEREAS, the structure of family support services many times inadvertently creates a "cliff effect", "churning" or "churn effect", thereby preventing this transition; and

     WHEREAS, the term "cliff effect" refers to the sharp drop in family support services that may occur when the earnings of an individual or family receiving family support services increases, placing that individual or family just over the required income thresholds for family support services; and

     WHEREAS, "churning" or "churn effect" refers to families who receive subsidies sporadically over time and frequently return to subsidy programs after they exit; and

     WHEREAS, with the cliff effect, the individual or family often loses more family support service benefits than the pay increase can cover; and

     WHEREAS, the administration for children and families of the federal health and human services department has identified churning as being detrimental for the family and the child and as being inefficient for the agency administering the child care program; and

     WHEREAS, for working families with young children, especially single-parent families, the cliff effect is more pronounced as they are more likely to live in poverty and receive more than one family support service; and

     WHEREAS, minimizing or eliminating cliff effects has statewide support, and more than two hundred participants at a 2016 New Mexico First statewide economy town hall recommended that steps be taken to minimize or eliminate cliff effects; and

     WHEREAS, a 2014 New Mexico child care and early education task force recommended that the state review and adjust eligibility criteria for the state child care assistance program so that more low-income families can qualify for and retain stable quality care; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico employers consistently identify the impact of cliff effects on their employees as a barrier to business growth and their ability to retain, train and promote hard-working employees; and

     WHEREAS, employee access to consistently provided, quality child care can affect employees' ability to work and employers' ability to have a reliable workforce; and

     WHEREAS, implementing solutions to smooth the impact of cliff effects on family support services would improve the economic future and opportunity of families and their children, and ultimately, New Mexico's economic future; and

     WHEREAS, when two or three family support services phase out at similar earning levels, cliff effects are intensified, causing employees to choose between continuing to work, receiving promotions and increased earnings and losing necessary support benefits; and

     WHEREAS, solutions to the cliff effect for family support services have the potential to positively affect many of the thousands of New Mexico children and their families who are served through family support services; and

     WHEREAS, information regarding eligibility, eligibility thresholds and other requirements for participating in or receiving benefits through family support services could be used by public and private entities to research and recommend how New Mexico can smooth out the cliff effects for child care safety net programs in such a way that honors hard work, advances economic progress for families and businesses and transitions people off public benefits in a fair way;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the secretary of children, youth and families, the secretary of health and the secretary of human services be requested to provide to the legislative finance committee the eligibility, eligibility thresholds and other requirements for participating in or receiving benefits through family support services; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the requested information be provided to the legislative finance committee no later than July 1, 2017 for use by a New Mexico First task force considering ways in which cliff effects may be reduced; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the New Mexico First task force be requested to report its recommendations to the legislative finance committee and the interim legislative health and human services committee no later than July 1, 2018; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of children, youth and families, the secretary of health, the secretary of human services, the chair of the legislative finance committee, the director of the legislative finance committee and the president and executive director of New Mexico First.

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