State Budget - Children and Families

Update: May 15, 2008

In addition to creating the new Department of Children and Families to improve coordination of services for children by administering several Department of Workforce Development and Department of Health and Family Services programs, the state budget features the following items:

  • The Legislature increased child care subsidies through the Wisconsin Shares program by $65 million more than what the Governor proposed in his original budget. The budget does not authorize waiting lists, and it does not change eligibility levels. Child care provider payment rates are frozen at 2006 levels. There are no statutory changes to the absence policy or family co-payments. A proposed cap on co-pay increases was removed.
  • Foster care rates will increase by 5 percent in January 2008 and an additional 5 percent in January 2009.

Update: May 12, 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:.