Legislature invested in the well-to-do, vulnerable Arizonans not so much

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, it seems fair to assess how the Arizona’s 55th Legislature, where members claim to value life, fared in helping children thrive.

To which the question would be which children?

The children of wealthy parents fared very well. Last year, by dramatically reducing taxes for the wealthy, each filer earning $5 million or more will save about $200,000 annually — $206 million collectively across the state — enough to easily afford a new Porsche 911 every year, not to mention tuition to any private school or university.

The bottom half of filers by contrast get about $10 each, enough money to buy a pizza.

This year the Legislature decided they had not been generous enough. Now the state will cut a check for $7,000 to each wealthy family’s student who attends private school and wishes to utilize the new voucher expansion.

Unlike the wealthy, the Legislature continues to do little for lower income families.

Little support for kids from lower-income homes

The Legislature jettisoned a proposal to add a modest refundable earned income tax credit.

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While the Legislature allocated additional education funding for students who qualify for free and reduced lunch, the amount is less than $100 per child.

The Grand Canyon Institute (GCI) advocates for an education opportunity weight of $1,500 per pupil as research consistently shows investing in lower income children provides the strongest long-term results.

The Legislature also failed to invest in early childhood supports that more than pay for themselves in the long term with improved school performance, higher incomes, less crime and more stable and functional family structures.

Such programs include home visits from nurses or social workers to assist low income mothers to learn more about child development and parenting during the first two years of their child’s life as well as expanded access to pre-K when these children are 3 and 4. The cost of about $300 million could have been phased in.

Rising rents, inflation create even greater needs

Rental costs have skyrocketed. The Legislature has gotten positive press for increasing from $15 million to $60 million the amount placed in the Housing Trust Fund to help build more affordable housing. Yet this is a token amount.

Before the pandemic in 2019, Phoenix already led the nation in annual cost increases in both apartment rents (up 8.2%) and single family home rents (up 6.7%). In 2019, about 40% to 44% of Arizona renters were cost burdened, paying more than 30% of their income on rent. In 2021, rents rose another 23% in Phoenix, putting the city among the top three in the country for rent increases.

When a family’s housing becomes unaffordable, evictions, whether formal or informal (people leaving before being evicted), have traumatic impacts on children, as they are forced to switch schools and lose consistency in their lives.

Greater hardship around the corner for some

The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that Arizona is short 150,000 low income rental units. If $60 million is seed money – at $400 per needed housing unit it’s very unlikely to solve the problem. By contrast, Grand Canyon Institute recommended the state invest at least four times that amount to incentivize local communities to develop more affordable housing.

But what bridges us until housing is built? Emergency rental assistance programs through the American Rescue Plan end later this year. Families will not magically find their rent more affordable when these programs end, so GCI recommended extending and fine-tuning these programs for the next two years for close to $500 million along with improving the rights of tenants. The institute estimates this could keep as many as 85,000 families in their homes annually.

A Legislature which truly valued life would not leave so many vulnerable families at risk, especially this year when we had the resources to make a difference.

Dave Wells is research director for the Grand Canyon Institute, which is dedicated to informing and improving public policy in Arizona through evidence-based, independent, objective, nonpartisan research. Reach him at dwells@azgci.org.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Legislature invested heavily -- just not on those who need it most