State Budget - Children and Families
Updated: May 2, 2007
Creation of a New Department of Children and Families: The Governor recommends creating the Department of Children and Families to focus a cabinet-level agency exclusively on the safety, economic and social well-being of children and families.
Child Care/Wisconsin Shares: The Governor fills some of the deficit and recommends the following cost containment strategies for the under funded Wisconsin Shares child care subsidy program:
- Attendance-based provider reimbursement for recipients who use less than 50 percent of their authorized child care hours.
- Decrease initial eligibility levels to 175 percent of the federal poverty level, with continuing eligibility for enrolled recipients up to 190 percent of the federal poverty level.
- Increase copayments by ten percent.
- Authorize the department to implement a child care waiting list in order to stay within its child care budget.
Social Service Grants for Milwaukee Organizations: The Governor recommends funding grants to Milwaukee organizations that provide gender-responsive mental health treatment and drug and alcohol abuse treatment to women with children, and to organizations that aid youth in making the transition from foster care to independent living. The proposal would provide $300, 000 in fiscal year 2009 for this initiative.
W-2 Contracts: Funding for the 2008-09 W-2 contracts include the following initiatives:
- Implement a Real Work Real Pay pilot project in three W-2 geographical areas, one of which will be in Milwaukee County.
- Extend the amount of time that parents can stay at home with their newborn children from 12 to 26 weeks.
- Provide a monthly cash benefit to pregnant women, with no other
children, who are in the third trimester of a pregnancy and are not able
to work because of a medically verified, at-risk pregnancy.
Here are links to our budget pages:.