UNMARRIED FATHERS GAIN TAX INCENTIVES IN NY GOV'S PROPOSAL: From the New York Times

Gov. George E. Pataki will unveil a program this week that would make New York the first state in the nation to use tax credits, along with other incentives, intended to motivate low-income fathers to work and pay child support, according to state officials.

"We think that engaging the dads has to be the next phase of welfare reform," said a senior administration official who provided details of the plan in advance on the condition that he not be identified. "We want to encourage really poor dads to get into the economic mainstream by rewarding work."

The central proposal of the plan would vastly expand the state's Earned Income Tax Credit for fathers under 30 who earn less than $12,000 a year and who do not live with their children but are up to date in their child support payments, the official said. The maximum annual credit such a man can receive now is $390 from the federal government and $130 from the state. Under Mr. Pataki's proposal, the same man could receive up to $1,560 from the state.

Such tax credits, which provide low-wage earners with cash payments that far exceed what they might have paid in taxes, are already available to low-income working parents who have custody of their children--mostly women. They are widely believed to have been pivotal in helping millions of women leave welfare rolls in the last decade and stay in their jobs.

Until now, however, no state has extended such a credit to those parents--mostly men--who do not have custody of their children. To qualify for the credit, a recipient must have a legitimate job, creating an incentive for men and women to leave the underground economy and find work on a company payroll.

In addition to the tax credit, the official said, the administration will propose creating intensive work programs and child-rearing courses for unemployed fathers, giving new discretion to judges and child-support magistrates to order unemployed fathers into work programs, and suspending child support obligations if the father marries the mother of the child and lives with her.

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posted by Eve at 2:30 AM VOTE

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