In the past, we've featured how
Delegate Dave Albo has advocated cutting the General Fund to pay for transportation (
AMG, Cutting Gang Prevention, Kids & Community Colleges to Pay Paul)and how he led the floor fight to kick 1,900 poor Fairfax County kids out of state-subsidized childcare (
AMG, Is Dave Albo Offering to Babysit 1900 Children?). Has he learned anything new?
Well, today's Washington Post features
a story about the reality of Del. Dave Albo's "transportation plan." By taking $250,000,000 out of the General Fund for transportation what happens?
Coleman is the mother of one of the more than 10,600 children on a waiting list for child-care subsidies in Virginia. The program, funded by state and federal dollars, is designed to defray the costs of child care for low-income families so the parents can work and don't have to rely on welfare or other public assistance.
The situation in Virginia has worsened since last year, when Congress directed states to move more people off welfare and into jobs. As part of the change, federal lawmakers required states to offer child care to families moving off welfare. In Virginia, officials shifted any new monies that could have been used for its existing child-care program, which aids working people such as Coleman, to the expanding one designed to help those getting off welfare.
For years, Virginia has failed to keep pace with the growing demand, particularly in Northern Virginia, leaving thousands of parents to consider a short list of unsavory options: quitting their jobs, taking second and third jobs at night, leaving older children to care for younger ones or leaving children with neighbors or in unlicensed child-care centers. . . .
Long List for Va. Childcare Subsidy Pushes Parents to Choose the Lesser of Evils, Washington Post, A01 (Mar. 6, 2007)
Would the $250,000,000 per year that they are raiding from the General Fund help to solve this problem? The
Washington Post says there are 10,600 kids on the waiting list. Childcare for an infant runs about $1200/mo. up here in Northern Virginia or about $400/mo. for a school-age kid. Let's use some
conservative assumptions here (
Del. Dave Albo is "conservative"):
10,500 kids X $1,200/yr. = $12,720,000
So for 5% of what they just proposed to steal from the General Fund they could PAY (not just subsidize) for these kids' childcare. Given that their mothers could then
actually work, they'd probably recoup much of the money through income tax collections!
But this is a poor, rural Virginia problem, right?
Nearly half of the state's waiting list is made up of children who live in Arlington, Prince William, Fairfax and Loudoun counties. In each of those jurisdictions, the eligibility requirements are the most generous in the state.
Long List for Va. Childcare Subsidy Pushes Parents to Choose the Lesser of Evils, Washington Post, A01 (Mar. 6, 2007)
Well, then it must not have been part of the budget discussion this year right?
Virginia officials say the subsidy has traditionally succumbed to other priorities. In recent years, for instance, lawmakers have directed most new human services money to programs for the mentally disabled. Callahan and Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax) submitted a $17.1 million request during the General Assembly session that ended last month, enough to fully fund the program, that was not approved by other lawmakers.
Long List for Va. Childcare Subsidy Pushes Parents to Choose the Lesser of Evils, Washington Post, A01 (Mar. 6, 2007)
So what happens when the rubber hits the road with Republican General Fund raids?
Our society's most vulnerable get left even further behind - even in Northern Virginia. And as always folks, remember what Del. Dave Albo told the
Washington Post back in 2004:
"My job is to fight for my people, my people are wealthy."
- Del. Dave Albo, Washington Post, Jan. 1, 2004
Albo's "Good Government" at its best.
