Ohio Can Design a Leading Prepaid Debit Card for State Tax Refunds: New Approach Can Save Millions, Help Under-Banked Families

Over the last few years, state governments have begun issuing prepaid debit cards rather than paper checks for government payments to individuals. Unemployment compensation, supplemental food assistance (referred to as SNAP or food stamps), and most recently, tax refunds, are being provided by direct deposit or loaded onto prepaid debit cards.1 These electronic transfers and debit cards increase efficiency of payment and decrease state costs compared to paper checks, which fewer states are providing. The first type of transfer, direct deposit, provides a safe, reliable and convenient method of payment for taxpayers with bank accounts. The other electronic option, prepaid debit cards, can help unbanked clients if states get the fees and accessibility right.Ohio is considering legislation, Senate Bill 365, that would allow the state to issue a prepaid debit card as an option for those who do not receive direct deposit for their state tax refund. The state can save money by issuing the cards, but it is essential that Ohio set up a smart structure and appropriately regulate fees associated with the card.2 Getting these details right will ensure that Ohio families and communities fully benefit from tax refunds. This brief provides lessons Ohio can learn from experiences in other states and with existing cards here. According to the Department of Taxation, nearly 40 percent of those receiving state tax refunds -- 1.4 million Ohioans -- opted for a paper check and not direct deposit. Given the numbers of paper check filers, it is imperative that Ohio offers a prepaid debit card that is safe, transparent, and easy to use

Home Insecurity 2012: Foreclosures and Housing in Ohio

Analyzes trends in the number of new foreclosure filings, developments in prevention efforts, and data on mortgage defaults and negative equity. Makes policy recommendations for strengthening stability among individuals, families, and communities

Keys for Collateral: How Auto-Title Loans Have Become Another Vehicle for Payday Lending in Ohio

Policy Matters has conducted research on payday lending in Ohio for the last five years. Most recently, two new forms of payday lending have taken hold in Ohio, which involve using a title for an automobile as collateral and lending under a statute meant for credit repair

Small Investment, Big Difference: How an Ohio Earned Income Tax Credit Would Help Working Families

Gov. John Kasich has proposed major changes in Ohio's tax system, including broadening the sales tax to cover most services, cutting the sales-tax rate, slashing income taxes and giving business owners a big tax break. Together, the impact of these changes will be to cut needed revenues, while transferring income from poor and middle-income Ohioans to the affluent.Broadening the sales tax base while cutting the state rate to 5 percent would produce significant needed revenue and make the sales tax more viable long-term, since more and more of the Ohio economy is based on services.The problem: Low- and moderate-income Ohioans would be most affected, as they would pay the most as a share of their income. And low-income Ohioans already pay more of their income in state and local taxes than rich Ohioans do. If Ohio is going to broaden the tax base, the state should adopt a state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), as 25 states (including the District of Columbia) have done. It is good policy at any time, especially when legislators are considering raising taxes on those least able to pay. An EITC not only helps create a more fair tax structure, it provides a boost to local economies, as EITC dollars are often spent and saved locally. This multiplier effect creates local and state tax revenue based on goods and services that are sold. Below we review the successes of the federal EITC and how it can be implemented in Ohio

School-to-Career Programs and Transitions to Employment and Higher Education

The 1994 Federal School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA) provided more than $1.5 billion over five years to support increased career preparation activities in the country's public schools. However, the STWOA was not re-authorized, so state governments face decisions about levels of funding support for school-to-career (STC) programs. Coupled with the availability of a new longitudinal data source with rich information on STC programs the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) it is therefore an opportune time to study the effectiveness of STC programs. This paper uses the NLSY97 to assess the effects of STC programs on transitions to employment and higher education among youths leaving high school, with a focus on estimating the causal effects of this participation given possible non-random selection of youths into STC programs.

Racial Segregation and the Black-White Test Score Gap

Racial segregation is often blamed for some of the achievement gap between blacks and whites. We study the effects of school and neighborhood segregation on the relative SAT scores of black students across different metropolitan areas, using large microdata samples for the 1998-2001 test cohorts. Our models include detailed controls for the family background of individual test-takers, school-level controls for selective participation in the test, and city-level controls for racial composition, income, and region. We find robust evidence that the black-white test score gap is higher in more segregated cities. Holding constant family background and other factors, a shift from a fully segregated to a completely integrated city closes about one-quarter of the raw black-white gap in SAT scores. Specifications that distinguish between school and neighborhood segregation suggest that neighborhood segregation has a consistently negative impact but that school segregation has no independent effect (though we cannot reject equality of the two effects). We find similar results using Census-based data on schooling outcomes for youth in different cities. Data on enrollment in honors courses suggest that within-school segregation increases when schools are more highly integrated, potentially offsetting the benefits of school desegregation and accounting for our findings.

Do School-to-Work Programs Help the “Forgotten Half�

This paper tests whether school-to-work (STW) programs are particularly beneficial for those less likely to go to college in their absence—often termed the “forgotten half†in the STW literature. The empirical analysis is based on the NLSY97, which allows us to study six types of STW programs, including job shadowing, mentoring, coop, school enterprises, tech prep, and internships / apprenticeships. For men there is quite a bit of evidence that STW program participation is particularly advantageous for those in the forgotten half. For these men, among the strongest evidence is that mentoring and coop programs increase post-secondary education, and coop, school enterprise, and internship / apprenticeship programs boost employment and decrease idleness after leaving high school. There is less evidence that STW programs are particularly beneficial in increasing schooling among women in the forgotten half, although internship / apprenticeship programs do lead to positive earnings effects concentrated among these women.

Racial Segregation and the Black-White Test Score Gap

Segregation, desegregation, SAT scores, cities, urban economics

Do School-To-Work Programs Help the "Forgotten Half"?

This paper tests whether school-to-work (STW) programs are particularly beneficial for those less likely to go to college in their absence%u2014%u2014often termed the %u201C%u201Cforgotten half%u201D%u201D in the STW literature. The empirical analysis is based on the NLSY97, which allows us to study six types of STW programs, including job shadowing, mentoring, coop, school enterprises, tech prep, and internships/apprenticeships. For men there is quite a bit of evidence that STW program participation is particularly advantageous for those in the forgotten half. For these men, specifically, mentoring and coop programs increase post-secondary education, and coop, school enterprise, and internship/apprenticeship programs boost employment and decrease idleness after leaving high school. There is less evidence that STW programs are particularly beneficial for women in the forgotten half, although internship/apprenticeship programs do lead to positive earnings effects concentrated among these women.