Tag: Midwest

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Question of the Month: What policies are in place in the Midwest to increase the number of state contracts going to minority- and female-owned businesses?

By Tim Anderson

No state in the Midwest requires that a certain percentage of contracts be given to minority- or women-owned businesses. (Outside the region, Connecticut requires that 6.25 percent of the value of state and local government contracts go to companies owned by women, minorities or disabled individuals.) However, at least three states have specific goals set in statute: Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin.

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In Wisconsin, new programs aim to help students with disabilities transition out of high school

By Katelyn Tye-Skowronski

A year after they have left high school, 58 percent of Wisconsin students with disabilities report that they have not yet worked, participated in a job-training program or taken a postsecondary course. Rep. Robert Brooks, a first-year legislator in the state Assembly, believes the state and its schools can do better for this population.

His plan, introduced at least initially as a budget resolution, calls for new pay-for- performance incentives for school districts to improve their career- and college-readiness programs for students with disabilities.

Districts would be rewarded with a $1,000 payment for each student with an Individualized Education Plan who graduates and, the following year, is either employed or enrolled in a postsecondary school. (School districts and the state already collect this data.)

Schools would use these payments to expand their programs — for example, providing students with transportation to jobs, paying for specialized staff training, or developing college-prep courses for students with disabilities.

“The initiative was something [disability rights groups] already had on the table,” Brooks says. “I decided to get going on it.”

If the plan isn’t adopted with the budget, Brooks plans to then introduce it as a stand-alone bill in the fall. The Department of Public Instruction estimates the program would need $5.8 million in its initial year.

Brooks says his new approach complements existing state programs, including Gov. Scott Walker’s Better Bottom Line plan, which seeks to improve the job market for people with disabilities. Wisconsin is also home to the Let’s Get to Work initiative, a federally funded project overseen by the state’s Board for People with Developmental Disabilities. The program aims to improve employment outcomes for students with disabilities as they transition out of high school.

Each of the project’s 12 pilot schools has developed and implemented recommendations to improve services and outcomes. One strategy, for example, has been to provide access to courses that relate to the students’ interests and career goals.

In the project’s first year, the number of students with disabilities who had paid jobs tripled. After three years, more than 60 percent of the students from these pilot schools were working.

Stateline Midwest May 2015

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Jobless numbers are falling, but so are rates of labor participation

By Tim Anderson

In 2014, year-over-year unemployment rates fell in all 50 states. That hadn’t happened since 1984, and the news was greeted as another positive sign of economic recovery. But there is another trend getting more attention from economists and state policymakers: the continuing decline in rates of labor participation.

Close to six years after the official end of the Great Recession, these rates continue to fall. The labor force includes people who have jobs and those who are actively seeking work (the unemployed). Four states in the Midwest (North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota) have the highest labor-participation rates in the country. But with the exception of North Dakota, every state in this region has been following the national trend: declines in participation since 2000 (see table).

For state policymakers, the causes for this drop can serve as an indicator of a state’s economic health — for example, more people are long-term unemployed, become discouraged about finding work and drop out of the labor market. That has contributed to the decline in participation rates, but there are other factors as well, notes Eugene Steuerle, a fellow at the Urban Institute.

People are retiring earlier and living longer, he says, and state populations are aging. More people, too, simply aren’t entering the labor force, and are instead staying in school longer or raising children, a 2013 Urban Institute study notes.

And while labor-participation rates fall, the number of people on federal disability rolls is on the rise — a 77.3 percent increase between 2000 and 2013. In comparison, the U.S. population has increased by 12.0 percent over that time.

Earlier this year, Express Employment Professionals (a provider of staffing for businesses) released a report examining state-by-state increases in the number of people on federal disability. Between 2008 and 2013, two Midwestern states had the largest increases in the nation: Michigan (29.1 percent) and Ohio (28.2 percent). North Dakota had the Midwest’s lowest rate of increase, 12.8 percent (fifth-lowest among the 50 states.)

Stateline Midwest April 2015

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Disabled, and able to work: With legislation and executive actions, states are doing more to improve job prospects of people with disabilities

By Laura Tomaka

For nearly 40 years, South Dakota Rep. Fred Romkema has run a jobs training center for a segment of his state’s population that he says is too often forgotten. About 140 people with disabilities are currently served at the Northern Hills Training Center, and 108 of them are earning a regular paycheck.

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North Dakota, South Dakota join forces to help disabled children; Wisconsin receives stand-alone grant

By Tim Anderson

Through a partnership with the federal government, and with each other in some cases, three states in the Midwest have launched initiatives to improve the educational and employment outcomes of young people with disabilities. These programs will establish new interventions for youths receiving Supplemental Security Income, or SSI.

North Dakota and South Dakota are part of a six-state consortium that received a U.S. Department of Education grant of $32.5 million. Those six states will enroll 2,000 low- income individuals between the ages of 14 and 16. Recruitment efforts will focus in part on rural and tribal areas. Enrollees will receive benefits counseling, financial training, work-based learning experiences and other intervention services. Wisconsin has received a stand-alone federal grant of $32.5 million.

One goal of these new programs is to reduce recipients’ long-term reliance on SSI. In the Midwest, SSI beneficiaries with disabilities account for between 2.5 percent of the state population (in Michigan, highest rate in the region) and 1.1 percent (North Dakota, lowest rate in the Midwest). The U.S. average is 2.2 percent, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. With the exception of Michigan and Ohio, states in the region fall below the U.S. rate.

Stateline Midwest February 2014

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Question of the Month: Do states in the Midwest provide property tax exemptions or credits to disabled veterans?

By Tim Anderson

Stateline Midwest ~ June 2013

Every Midwestern state offers property tax breaks to certain disabled veterans, though the scope and amount of these credits and exemptions vary.

In two Midwestern states, the exemption is not specific to veterans with a disability. Iowa reduces the assessed value of a home (for property tax purposes) by $1,852 for all veterans. In Ohio, an exemption is available for all permanently and totally disabled homeowners; it applies to the first $25,000 of a home’s market value.

Legislation introduced this year in Ohio (SB 27) would provide a total tax exemption for properties owned by veterans who are 100 percent disabled due to an injury or illness that was incurred or aggravated during active military service. This disability rating is determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Disabled veterans in Michigan qualify for the state’s Homestead Property Tax Credit. Also, homes that have been adapted to meet the needs of a veteran with a 100 percent service-connected disability are totally exempt from property taxes.

Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota offer broader exemptions, giving veterans tax breaks on a sliding scale based on their level of service-connected disability.

An Illinois veteran with a disability of between 50 percent and 69 percent qualifies for a $2,500 reduction in equalized assessed valuation. The reduction is $5,000 for someone with a disability of 70 percent or higher.

Indiana has different categories of property tax exemptions that may apply to disabled veterans. For veterans who served during wartime and have a disability of 10 percent or more, the maximum deduction is $24,960. It rises to $37,440 for veterans who have a disability of 100 percent or who are 62 or older with a disability of 10 percent or more. (Deduction levels are as of 2012.)

In Minnesota, the value of a home (for property tax purposes) is reduced by as much as $300,000 for individuals with a disability of 100 percent. It is cut by $150,000 for a veteran who is not totally or permanently disabled, but who has a disability of 70 percent or higher.

Nebraska uses a sliding income scale to determine the amount of each individual homestead exemption, which is only available to veterans with a 100 percent service-connected disability. Such veterans with incomes of less than $29,801 receive a full exemption. The percentage decreases as income levels rise; no tax relief is provided when income exceeds $36,700.

Like Nebraska, the property tax exemption in South Dakota extends only to those individuals with a 100 percent service-connected disability. The first $100,000 of a home’s value is exempt. 

There is no limit to the amount that can be claimed in Wisconsin, where disabled veterans qualify for an exemption if they meet one of two federal criteria: 100 percent service-connected disabled, or a total inability to maintain gainful employment.

Kansas and North Dakota provide tax relief for veterans with a service-connected disability of 50 percent or more. Kansas offers a maximum tax refund of $300 to individuals with annual incomes of $32,400 or less. North Dakota’s property tax credit for disabled veterans applies to the first $120,000 of a home’s value; the amount varies depending on disability rating.