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Poverty increases as economy suffers
Rising rates vary widely across Wisconsin with highest rate in Milwaukee County listed at 17.3 percent
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Also by Rachel Vesco:
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State poverty rates are increasing due to current economic conditions, according to the Wisconsin Poverty Report released Monday.
The report estimates 12.6 percent of
The report — put together by the
The report also found statewide enrollment of individuals in the Supplementary Nutritional Assistance Program has escalated. Since 2007, enrollment in the program increased by 37 percent, rising in every county and demographic region of the state. In some counties, enrollment increased by more than 50 percent.
Timothy Smeeding, director of the IRP, said he was most surprised to see the large increase in citizens on SNAP over the past two years.
“I was surprised to see how fast people need food stamps. That was pretty amazing,” Smeeding said.
Smeeding said if he could, he would like to go back and evaluate the effect other state and federal policies have had on poverty, like the policies included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
There are a variety of steps lawmakers can take to help improve poverty rates in the state, IRP senior editor Deborah Johnson said.
“The Institute for Research on Poverty prepared the Wisconsin Poverty Report as the starting point for discussions among researchers, policymakers, agency executives, service providers and the many non-profit organizations and foundations that are fighting poverty,” Johnson said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald.
Reducing poverty will likely require many organizations and the government to work together, Johnson added, although she highlighted various state programs that have been effective, including state-funded child-care assistance.
The government should first enact policies to help keep the current conditions in the state stable, Smeeding said. He argued the recession is not over and unemployment rates in the state and nation are still likely to continue to rise.
Smeeding added he was in favor of increasing funding for technical colleges and said he believes these programs will provide training to citizens, allowing them to fill jobs in the state once economic conditions have improved.
Smeeding presented the report in
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Hmmmm…. Milwaukee has historically been the state bastion of Liberal Socialist politics, staunch advocates of Liberal Democrat welfare programs, and redoubt of anticapitalist philosphies that drive away manufacturing employers and good paying jobs. As such, Milwaukee is the perfect poster child for the Obama socialist agenda.
As their Liberal reward for nearly a century of embracing Socialist “values”, Milwaukee has the highest unemployment rates, high proverty rates, high illiteracy rates, high crime rates, and high demand for more government support programs. Enormous amounts of Wisconsin and federal taxpayers wealth has been and continues to be redistributed to Milwaukee each year, propping up their near century of philosophical and economic failures. Again, Milwaukee demonstrates how effectively Obama socialism can really bring socialist “Hope” and “Change” to the rest of America.
Is this your idea of “Building Bridges to Family Economic Success”? Or are you willing to admit you made a really bad mistake yet, in voting for Barrack “I Believe In Wealth Redistribution” Obama?
Hope….. Change….. Milwaukee….
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Milwaukee was once the machine tool capital of the world. Milwaukee once MEANT beer, now one brewrey left. Milwaukee once overflowed with high paid blue collar jobs.
What happened? Thank the strong unions and Liberal Democrats.
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“Is this your idea of “Building Bridges to Family Economic Success”? Or are you willing to admit you made a really bad mistake yet, in voting for Barrack “I Believe In Wealth Redistribution” Obama?”
How is this Obama’s fault? Didn’t he just elected in Jan of this year? There is more to the problems of Milwaukee then just failed politics.
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It’s not Obama’s fault. Things were going well until the the Democrats took over Congress a few years ago.
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Obama and his people begin to make their mark!
In the middle of this debate was David B. Kellermann, Freddie Mac’s acting chief financial officer who died in an apparent suicide on April 22. Kellermann, who had spent years reworking Freddie Mac’s accounting after a scandal earlier this decade, “felt pressured” to withhold information that he felt he had a duty to provide, said a person knowledgeable of his tenure at the company.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/05/AR2009050503674_pf.html