Legislative Initiative Idea

[Guest guest]

Some of us are meeting with our local state pols next week to discuss a

legislative idea. We may have already missed some deadline for filing them in

the legislature, but we didn't think of this until recently, so we'll have to

talk with them now. To some it will seem like a drop in the bucket, but is

intended to begin getting our GOP friends in particular thinking about ways to

reward the behaviors we want to see, i.e. for the private sector to step up and

help 'solve' the social service mess many of us find ourselves in. Ok, here

goes -- and what I'm looking for now is not grammar edits (there are many) but

substantive perspectives on it.

Legislative idea to promote private/community employment:

Implement a corporate or small business IL tax credit that meaningfully

targets/rewards the hiring of individuals with developmental disabilities, one

which enhances the federal WOTC tax credits.

Background: Many of our adults will need ongoing job coaching if they are to

seek and retain competitive employment. We are familiar with some employment

models, such as Project SEARCH in Cincinnati, where an employer essentially

hires an on-the-job coach who supervises a number of employees with disabilities

who may require daily supervision beyond what a typical supervisor would

provide. This is not an 'enclave' type of creation, but supervision of

individual workers who may have different jobs in different areas of a company.

There does not appear to be a disability-related state tax incentive on the

books right now, at least according to what we've read on the IDES website

(www.ides.state.il.us/employer/ui-credits.asp).

It mentions 2 IL State Tax Credits related to the WOTC, 1 is for hiring

ex-offenders, the other for hiring qualified veterans. Both are 5% of qualified

wages paid up to a max of only $600 tax credit per employee. Not sure if you

can claim multiple tax credits if you hire more than 1 offender or vet.

Whatever we propose, it would have to be meaningful enough to change behaviors

-- and for those of us who have kids that always need some ongoing job coaching,

to make a difference we would need to look at:

a) being able to claim the credit for part-time employees

being able to claim the credit for more than one employee at a time, if we

are to maximize the numbers of workers who may share a job coach

and

c) there was consensus that it not be merely a one-time or first-year credit,

but an ANNUAL credit so long as the workers continue to be employed.

Feedback please!?!?

Thank you.

Laurie

[Guest guest]

Some of us are meeting with our local state pols next week to discuss a

legislative idea. We may have already missed some deadline for filing them in

the legislature, but we didn't think of this until recently, so we'll have to

talk with them now. To some it will seem like a drop in the bucket, but is

intended to begin getting our GOP friends in particular thinking about ways to

reward the behaviors we want to see, i.e. for the private sector to step up and

help 'solve' the social service mess many of us find ourselves in. Ok, here

goes -- and what I'm looking for now is not grammar edits (there are many) but

substantive perspectives on it.

Legislative idea to promote private/community employment:

Implement a corporate or small business IL tax credit that meaningfully

targets/rewards the hiring of individuals with developmental disabilities, one

which enhances the federal WOTC tax credits.

Background: Many of our adults will need ongoing job coaching if they are to

seek and retain competitive employment. We are familiar with some employment

models, such as Project SEARCH in Cincinnati, where an employer essentially

hires an on-the-job coach who supervises a number of employees with disabilities

who may require daily supervision beyond what a typical supervisor would

provide. This is not an 'enclave' type of creation, but supervision of

individual workers who may have different jobs in different areas of a company.

There does not appear to be a disability-related state tax incentive on the

books right now, at least according to what we've read on the IDES website

(www.ides.state.il.us/employer/ui-credits.asp).

It mentions 2 IL State Tax Credits related to the WOTC, 1 is for hiring

ex-offenders, the other for hiring qualified veterans. Both are 5% of qualified

wages paid up to a max of only $600 tax credit per employee. Not sure if you

can claim multiple tax credits if you hire more than 1 offender or vet.

Whatever we propose, it would have to be meaningful enough to change behaviors

-- and for those of us who have kids that always need some ongoing job coaching,

to make a difference we would need to look at:

a) being able to claim the credit for part-time employees

being able to claim the credit for more than one employee at a time, if we

are to maximize the numbers of workers who may share a job coach

and

c) there was consensus that it not be merely a one-time or first-year credit,

but an ANNUAL credit so long as the workers continue to be employed.

Feedback please!?!?

Thank you.

Laurie