Budget changes adversely affect families in 2012, according to a children and families advocacy group.
An advocacy group says, while policy changes and cuts were made in the state budget bill last July, many working families in Wisconsin are now starting to feel the impact of those changes. Ken Taylor, executive director of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families says it’s about to get even worse. “Many of the decisions that were made during the budget process are just now starting to hit Wisconsin’s families.”
The group compiled a new summary of budget changes going into effect this year; that includes a lower Earned Income Tax Credit, a one week waiting period for unemployment benefits, and rising health care premiums and copays. In balancing the biennial state budget, cuts had to be made. Taylor agrees… “But, those cuts fall disproportionately on children and families and there was no sacrifice asked of the wealthy or corporations.”
Taylor says it’s important for the general public to understand the implications. Individually, the changes aren’t as bad, he says, but they are accumulative over time and costly for many low-income, working families.
AUDIO: Jackie Johnson report 1:24
