Assembly Bill No. 273

Assembly Bill No. 273-Assemblymen de Braga, Parks, Neighbors, Lee, Mortenson, Price, Bache, Amodei, Herrera, Koivisto, Evans, Dini, Manendo, Buckley, Chowning, Segerblom and Freeman

March 13, 1997
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Referred to Committee on Ways and Means

SUMMARY--Makes appropriation to Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation for establishment and continued operation of Turnabout AmeriCorps Child Care Program. (BDR S-1260)

FISCAL NOTE: Effect on Local Government: No.

Effect on the State or on Industrial Insurance: Contains Appropriation not included in Executive Budget.

EXPLANATION - Matter in italics is new; matter in brackets [ ] is material to be omitted.

AN ACT making an appropriation to the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation for the establishment and continued operation of the Turnabout AmeriCorps Child Care Program; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.

Whereas, The Turnabout AmeriCorps Child Care Program in Fallon, Nevada, has successfully met the need for high-quality, affordable child care for nearly 100 infants and toddlers over the past 2 years; and
Whereas, The program has seen 6 parents graduate from high school, 7 parents receive a GED, 16 families remain enrolled in a basic education program, and 17 families reduce or avoid welfare support and stay in the workplace; and
Whereas, Impending changes to the laws governing welfare programs will require participating families to enter the work force when their children are only 1 year of age, and a shortage of high-quality, affordable child care for these children is imminent; and
Whereas, By investing between $20,000 and $25,000 per year in this program, the State of Nevada will receive approximately $125,000 per year from the federal AmeriCorps Program, 90 percent of which is in the form of taxable wages or living allowances; and
Whereas, The provision of child care through this program represents an additional and significant savings for the State of Nevada because if the burden for child care were borne completely by this state at the rates of the current market, the cost to taxpayers would be approximately $200,000 per year; and
Whereas, The availability of quality care during early childhood is the recognized antidote for many social ills that plague children living in poverty, whether they are the children of undereducated parents or the children of the working poor; and
Whereas, Intervention during early childhood is more cost-effective than welfare programs or other types of intervention later in life; and
Whereas, Longitudinal studies show a savings of $7 for every $1 spent on quality programs during early childhood, indicating a total savings of approximately $750,000 for the taxpayers of the State of Nevada during a 2-year operation of this program; and
Whereas, The Turnabout AmeriCorps Child Care Program has been the subject of professional evaluation for the past 2 years, and the result of this objective evaluation by experts is a recommendation that the program be replicated in other communities; now, therefore,

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1. 1. There is hereby appropriated from the state general fund to the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation the sum of $40,000 for the continued operation of the Turnabout AmeriCorps Child Care Program in Fallon, Nevada.
2. Any remaining balance of the appropriation made by subsection 1 must not be committed for expenditure after June 30, 1999, and reverts to the state general fund as soon as all payments of money committed have been made.
Sec. 2. 1. There is hereby appropriated from the state general fund to the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation for the fiscal year 1997-98 the sum of $25,000 for the establishment of the Turnabout AmeriCorps Child Care Program in Clark and Elko counties.
2. There is hereby appropriated from the state general fund to the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation for the fiscal year 1998-99 the sum of $20,000 for the continued operation of the Turnabout AmeriCorps Child Care Program in Clark and Elko counties.
3. Any balance of the sums appropriated by subsections 1 and 2 remaining at the end of the respective fiscal years must not be committed for expenditure after June 30 and reverts to the state general fund as soon as all payments of money committed have been made.
Sec. 3. The Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation may grant the money appropriated in sections 1 and 2 of this act only if matching money or services, or a combination of both, is provided by the federal AmeriCorps program.
Sec. 4. This act becomes effective on July 1, 1997.