NJ research group pitches multibillion-dollar plan to reduce childhood poverty

A New Jersey progressive research group says expanding tax credits and making payments of $5,000 to Medicaid-eligible families would relieve growing childhood poverty.

Trenton-based New Jersey Policy Perspective, in a report titled “Freedom from Want: An Economic Guarantee for New Jersey’s Kids,” says its initiatives would cost taxpayers about $5 billion a year. By comparison, it said, New Jersey property tax-relief programs total more than $7.3 billion. 

The group said its anti-poverty plan “would require significant investment by the state, but would be well within the scope of other state cash-assistance programs.” The outcome would be a good investment, it argued. Every dollar spent could bring $10 in societal benefits, via higher lifetime earnings and reduced healthcare costs, according to the report.

The report pitches doubling benefit amounts for tax credits and Work First New Jersey programs and adding funding to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food benefits. A proposed “New Jersey Family Guarantee” would give $5,000 annually to parents who receive Medicaid, to go toward child expenses.

“Child poverty is a big deal and it’s only getting bigger with federal cuts impacting the state,” Kelli Parker, a New Jersey Policy Perspective spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview. Parker said the report will be presented to NJ lawmakers. 

The federal poverty line is $32,000 for a family of four. Though New Jersey is one of the nation’s wealthiest states, one in eight Garden State children live in poverty, the group reported. 

A lack of financial stability is known to hurt lifelong wellbeing, including school performance, socialization, health and job prospects. Black and Hispanic children suffer poverty at a rate more than double that of non-Hispanic white families, according to the report.

 “New Jersey has the resources and the responsibility to ensure every child grows up with enough to eat, a safe home, and the chance to thrive,” the report says. “The curse of poverty has no justification is our age.”

Do you like what you read? Join our free weekly newsletter here. This article is written by Isabella Burke and Brooke Holzhauer, courtesy of the NJ State House News Service