A&O Network Federal Policy Agenda (Will You Help Us on Capitol Hill Today?)

By Derek Thomas

This week - as a state co-lead organization of the Indiana Assets & Opportunity Network - the Institute has been fortunate to participate in the A&O Network Leadership Convening in Washington D.C. Along with the opportunity to learn more about asset-building issues, we're thankful for the time Representative Walorski, Senator Donnelly and Senator Coats have set aside for us to discuss the federal policy agenda (below) to compliment the Institute's state-based policy efforts.

It's easy for you to assist our advocacy efforts. Just click on the title of any legislation below to call that particular representative "with the click of a button" via govtrack.us. 

1 - Urge Congress to Lift SSI Asset Limit Tests & Defend State Flexibility

Representative Walorski, Senator Donnelly and Senator Coats: 

• Please protect millions of working families, children, vets and seniors who need SNAP and state's rights to waive asset tests. Please share your support with the Farm Bill conferees. 
• Indiana is just one of five states with rigid traditional categorical eligibility. Congressional Research Service - The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Categorical Eligibility
• As part of our recommendations, read our SNAP and TANF Asset Briefs to see how eliminating asset tests can simultaneously encourage administrative efficiency and self-sufficiency.

2 - Expand and Protect Tax Incentives for Low and Moderate Income Families

Representative Walorski:

• Please Cosponsor Savings for American Families Future Act (H.R. 837, Rep. Neal) - allows the Savers Credit to be refundable.
• "80% of the benefits from retirement tax incentives go to those in the top fifth of the income distribution." Center for American Progress - Using Progressive Savings Matches to Counter Upside-Down Tax Incentives
• Please Cosponsor Financial Security Credit (H.R. 2917, Rep. Serrano) - helps working families save for emergencies, retirement, education and homeownership.
• "...would offer a 50 percent match on the first $1,000 saved by low- and moderate-income workers...in a retirement account, education savings account, U.S. savings bond, certificate of deposit, or even some savings accounts, provided that families held onto the savings for at least eight months." Center for American Progress - Using Progressive Savings Matches to Counter Upside-Down Tax Incentives
• Please Cosponsor Earned Income Tax Credit Improvement and Simplification Act (H.R. 2116, Rep. Neal) - would make EITC expansions from the stimulus permanent and substantially improve the credit for childless workers.
• Combined, this legislation and the Working Families Tax Relief Act, could lift "more than 300,000 childless workers out of poverty, and significantly reduce the severity of poverty for almost four million more workers...could help meet challenges faced particularly by younger, less-educated people...including low labor force participation rates, low marriage rates, and even high incarceration rates." Economic Policy Institute - The Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit

Senator Donnelly:

• Please Cosponsor the Working Families Tax Relief Act (S. 836, Sen. Brown) - strengthen the earned income tax credit and make permanent certain tax provisions under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
• Combined, this legislation and the Earned Income Tax Improvement and Simplification Act, could lift "more than 300,000 childless workers out of poverty, and significantly reduce the severity of poverty for almost four million more workers...could help meet challenges faced particularly by younger, less-educated people...including low labor force participation rates, low marriage rates, and even high incarceration rates." Economic Policy Institute - The Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit

3 - Urge Congress to Re-Authorize and Improve the Assets for Independence Act

Representative Walorski:

• Please Cosponsor Stephanie Jones Tubbs Assets for Independence Reauthorization Act (H.R. 2110, Rep. Lewis) and please Cosponsor Savings for Working Families Act (H.R. 2964, Rep. Pitts) - to enhance program flexibility and further support Individual Development Accounts.
• Indiana's IDA program has shown that with the right incentives, low-income families can successfully build wealth. The aforementioned support would help to remove federal red-tape that currently prohibits additional success: IIWF: IDA Policy Brief 
• Please Cosponsor American Savings Promotion Act (H.R. 3374, Rep. Kilmer) - would remove barriers that prevent Prize Linked Savings products from spreading around the country.
• "Due to outdated federal regulations, banks and federally chartered financial institutions are unable to offer prize-linked savings accounts," says Kilmer. His American Savings Promotion Act would remove that regulatory barrier.
  ABC News - Here's a Lottery You Cannot Lose.

• Please Cosponsor American Dreams Act (H.R. 2155, Rep. Fattah) - would support child savings accounts and financial education for low-income students, throughout the country.
• "The increasing interest in college savings accounts is an acknowledgment of today’s reality: College is indisputably a ticket up the economic ladder, but the soaring cost makes it out of reach for more and more families. According to the Brookings Institution and the Pew Economic Mobility Project, barely one in three children from the poorest fifth of families enrolls in college, and only about one in 10 graduates. By comparison, among the wealthiest fifth of families, four in five children go to college, and more than half (53 percent) graduate. Children’s savings programs, which have the potential to offer big returns on relatively small investments, are a response with bipartisan appeal."
  CFED - The Inclusive Economy (Op Ed via Politico)

Senator Coats:

• Please work with Senator Merkley to develop a bipartisan reauthorization of the Assets and Independence program. 
• Indiana's IDA program has shown that with the right incentives, low-income families can successfully build wealth. The aforementioned support would remove the federal red-tape that currently prohibits additional success: IIWF IDA Policy Brief 

Senator Donnelly and Senator Coats:

• Please Cosponsor American Savings Promotion Act (S. 918, Sen. Coons and Sen. Rubio) - would remove barriers that prevent Prize Linked Savings products from spreading around the country.
• "Due to outdated federal regulations, banks and federally chartered financial institutions are unable to offer prize-linked savings accounts," says Kilmer. His American Savings Promotion Act would remove that regulatory barrier. ABC News - Here's a Lottery You Cannot Lose.
• Please Cosponsor American Dreams Act (S. 1597, Sen. Moran and Sen. Brown) - would support child savings accounts and financial education for low-income students, throughout the country.
• "The increasing interest in college savings accounts is an acknowledgment of today’s reality: College is indisputably a ticket up the economic ladder, but the soaring cost makes it out of reach for more and more families. According to the Brookings Institution and the Pew Economic Mobility Project, barely one in three children from the poorest fifth of families enrolls in college, and only about one in 10 graduates. By comparison, among the wealthiest fifth of families, four in five children go to college, and more than half (53 percent) graduate. Children’s savings programs, which have the potential to offer big returns on relatively small investments, are a response with bipartisan appeal." CFED - The Inclusive Economy (Op Ed via Politico)

The Painful and Irresponsible Sequester in Indiana

By: Derek Thomas

This blog is an update to the effects of the crisis-driven fiscal policy that has dominated Washington D.C. - now including a government shutdown - reported to have cost the U.S. economy $24 billion.

Sequestration is a package of automatic spending cuts enacted under the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011. Due to disagreements over fiscal policy during the 2011 federal budget showdown, the automatic triggers – equal to $85.3 billion – were proposed by President Obama and supported by a majority of both parties in Congress to incentivize an agreement . That has yet to happen. 

  

While sequestration has had an already harmful effect on Hoosier families (as detailed below), the bill to end a government shutdown and avoid default did not deal with sequestration, of which the second consecutive year of cuts (for Fiscal Year 2014, beginning October 1st 2013) is expected to cause exponential harm due to the compounding design of sequestration. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center: "The full brunt of the cuts hasn't hit, and if we go down the sequester path for too long, we won't be able to reverse the devastating impacts."  Or, from the Center on Law and Social Policy (CLASP): "These cuts are likely to be more painful than the 2013 cuts because agencies are likely to have exhausted any carry-over funds from previous years that they may have used to cushion the effects of the sequester." Alternatively, and according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), eliminating the sequester would increase real GDP by 0.6 percent and full-time-equivalent employment by 800,000.

For comparison, here are the initial White House estimates of the sequester effects on Indiana, and a press release from Governor Pence on the state's proposed attempts at mitigating the effects. According to the Economic Policy Institute -  Indiana was 1 of 5 states to see the "largest percentage funding cuts for federal grants due to both the March 1 sequestration as well as the passage of the current continuing resolution..." These grants "aid states' efforts to provide infrastructure, education, and health and social services." 

Here's how that's played out for Hoosiers so far:

• Head Start: In Indiana, more than 700 children (nearly 57,000 nationally) will have lost their opportunity to get a leg up before entering kindergarten due to the more than $4,000,000 in cuts to Head Start. Being only 1 of 11 states that does not have state-funded pre-kindergarten programs and high rates of child poverty, Indiana’s federal and state lawmakers should act swiftly to ensure the protection our of most vulnerable children. Within Hoosier communities:
• Head Start programs in Franklin and Columbus resorted to a lottery system to determine which students would be cut from the program.
• In Bloomington, 12 slots for Head Start students, 25 slots for home-based Early Head Start, 72 slots for summer programs, and 15 Head Start employees will be affected by the cuts. According to WXIN Fox 59 News, Monroe County is among the first to address sequester cuts.
• WTHI - TV in Terre Haute reports that sequestration is responsible for "at least 20 children not able to attend Head Start...staffing cuts, and even the elimination of Head Start's full day program."

• Unemployment Benefits: Federally extended unemployment benefits have been cut for the long-term unemployed by 10.7%. This cut affects the more than 30% of unemployed Hoosiers that have been unemployed for 26 weeks or more.  It's also important to note, as of the 4th quarter of 2012, 67.1% of unemployed Hoosiers were not receiving unemployment benefits - that's the 9th lowest ratio in the nation.

• Meals on Wheels programs have been forced to cut, on average, 364 meals per week, according to a national survey from the Meals on Wheels Association of America. Within Hoosier communities:
• Vulnerable seniors in rural Indiana that depend on the Meals on Wheels program for food delivery will have to find alternative methods of food delivery  as a result of the 10% cut to the program.
• In Title III Older Americans Act, meals are provided through three sources: home-delivered nutrition services; congregate nutrition services and; nutrition services incentives program. Here is the breakdown of cuts to each funding source.
• Federal Workforce Development Programs: From the National Skills Coalitions report on the Divesting in the Skills of America's Workforce, total cuts to key Federal Workforce Development Programs are equal to $9,617,195, affecting 28,090 Hoosiers. Cuts to programs include the Workforce investment Act (WIA) Programs, Career and Technical Education Programs, Adult Basic Education (ABE) Programs, Vocational Rehabilitation Programs and Wagner-Peyser Employment Services. 

• Public Defender Services: Philip P. Simon, Chief Judge, Northern District of Indiana and Richard L. Young Chief Judge, Southern District of Indiana both signed on to a letter from the United States District Court that expressed "grave concern" that not only puts in peril the courts operations, staff, and public safety, but most significantly, "counsel for criminal defendants who lack the financial resources to hire an attorney", known as Public Defender Services.

• Low-Income Housing Vouchers: Citing "substantial shortfalls in funding to renew the Housing Choice Voucher", the  Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that sequestration could cut housing vouchers for up to 4,150 low-Income families by the end of 2014 (of the 35,532 families with assistance in Indiana). Within Hoosier communities:
• The Fort Wayne Housing Authority has some serious concerns and states that the funds they get for their program are currently running at only 64% of what they were and could result in cuts to low-income housing vouchers.
• The Indianapolis Housing Agency declared a nine-day furlough of its employees and is freezing hiring and capital expenditures. 
• Updated (July, 2013): West Lafayette to See Budget Cuts After Sequester - City officials were notified that their Community Development Block Grant would be cut. WFII Channel 18 reports that West Lafayette uses CDBG dollars for infrastructure, housing and to fund non-profit service providers. 

• Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP): The National Energry Assistance Directors' Association (NEADA) reported that  1,335 families in Indiana (nationally) lost energy assistance. From NEADA: "The outlook for the coming winter is especially grim since the Energy Information Administration has projected that the average cost of home heating will increase from $922 to $977." 

• Special Education: From Pew States: Sequester Hits Special Education Like 'Ton of Bricks':  The "estimated reduction in dollars in federal funding to Indiana in fiscal year 2013 for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part B Grants, following the 5 percent sequestration cuts in funding" is equal to $12,376,969.
• Farm Service Agency: According to the Palladium-Item: "Farmers and ranchers who participate in Farm Service Agency programs should plan for automatic spending reductions in fiscal year 2014 under the federal sequestration program." These programs include: "Dairy Indemnity Payment Program; Marketing Assistance Loans; Loan Deficiency Payments; Sugar Loans; Non-insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program; Tobacco Transition Payment Program; 2013 Direct and Counter-Cyclical Payments; 2013 Average Crop Revenue Election Program; 2011 and 2012 Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program; Storage, handling; and Economic Adjustment Assistance for Upland Cotton."

• The National Institutes of Health estimated that the $1.5 billion in federal funding for medical research will not only result in direct and indirect job loss (including fleeing talent), but will have a  "disproportionate impact on our academic medical center and our ability to care for our sickest and most vulnerable patients, both now and in the future." Here's the effect that has on our own research institutions (Indiana University, Purdue University, Notre Dame) from Richard Buckius, Vice President for Research and a mechanical engineering professor Dr. Craig Brater - Dean of I.U. School of Medicine

• Defense Spending: The Wall St. Journal reported in April 2013 that “defense spending tumbled by 33.2%, possibly reflecting spending cuts known as the sequester” – signaling a likely continuation of the activity listed below:
• For the Indianapolis 500, federally funded flyovers during the race or any active duty military parades were cancelled. 
• Furloughs 10,000 Civilian Defense Workers in Indiana - According to the Indianapolis Star, each worker will face 11 days of furlough. The Star also reports that, "[b]ecause these budget cuts were so large, they will force unavoidable changes for the city of 46,000." 
• One thousand full-time guard staffers from Indiana National Guard are preparing for furloughs - resulting in a 20% pay reduction for 14 weeks.
• According to WIBC: "This [most recent Veterans Day] marked the 50th year that a parade had been organized by the Veterans Day Council of Indianapolis, but missing this year was the usual military flyover. It was a victim of federal budget cuts mandated by the sequester."
• 1,000 Indiana National Guardsman were furloughed for one week due due to the federal government shutdown.
• The Indianapolis Air Show - an attraction that drew 80,000 visitors in 2012 - announced that they will permanently ground their air show. Citing a number of reasons, sequestration was the final straw.
• Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Food and Nutrition Service: According to The Republic in Columbus, WIC in Bartholemew County are seeing full-time positions reduced to part-time jobs due to sequestration, and while services have not been cut yet, accessing these vital services could mean longer lines and reduced service delivery as staff attempts to do more with less. 
• As of October, Indiana has restored funding for the WIC program.

• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA): On March 21^st, the  FAA announced that it would be closing two airport control towers in the Gary and Columbus airports.  On April 15^th, a handful of flights were cancelled or delayed as a result of the FAA furloughing 47,000 employees. You'll recall that Congress responded to these cuts with unprecedented swiftness and funding has been restored.
• The Environment: According to the Northwest Indiana Times, investigations into "oil sheens, films and floating substances" in  local waterways are being "delayed by numerous setbacks caused in part by furlough days created by the federal sequester".
• Cities and Towns:The Journal and Courier reported on a U.S. Conference of Mayors report that showed "most of Indiana's cities are struggling more economically in 2013 than they did in 2012." The report cited "across-the-board federal budget cuts known as sequestration and tepid economic growth in Europe."

Making a bad situation worse, many nonprofit organizations that deliver government services through federal or state contracts were already operating very lean, with reimbursements below costs, using philanthropic funds to make up the difference. The charitable sector simply cannot make up the difference or replace the lost funds. For example: Tri-State Food Bank (having already lost 1.4 million pounds of food due to budget cuts last year) has seen an additional half-million pounds lost due to sequestration cuts. With additional cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or formally, Food Stamps) - affecting a total of 925,000 Hoosiers - similar shortages are expected in Lafayette's Food Finder Food Bank and the Lafayette Urban Ministry, and in Bloomington, the 27,500 Hoosiers that use Hoosier Hills Food Bank will lose a total of 114,000 meals per month. The Northwest Indiana Times reported that, as benefit levels are decreased as a result of SNAP cuts, more families are lining up for poor relief and food banks.

Congress’ inability to restore these cuts will continue to have a disproportionate effect on low-income Hoosier families, and the economy. Not only will the loss of employees and work hours have ripple effects as families are forced to spend less on basic needs such as rent, utility, food and more in local communities, these reckless and widespread cuts will only further exacerbate the Status of Working Families (see 2012 Report here) - defined by increasing poverty, declining opportunities, stagnating wages and challenges to educational attainment necessary to create high-wage job growth. 

TAKE ACTION: Follow this link (from Coalition on Human Needs) to contact your representative and senators and tell them that we need to invest in the services that allow our economy and people to move forward. You can also visit Our American Story (from Half in Ten and Coalition on Human Needs) to see how community leaders across the nation are working to expand economic opportunity for all through the power of their personal stories.

Indiana's Diminished Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Underscores Need for Expanded Access

By: Andrew Bradley and Derek Thomas

The Economic Policy Institute's Elise Gould released a report this week on the decade-long erosion of employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI). While ESI is an important component of a family's ability to achieve and maintain economic self-sufficiency, its availability has flattened nationwide. Here in Indiana, coverage has declined for over half a million Hoosiers since 2000, and the state has seen the nation's largest loss in children's coverage. This diminished health coverage for Hoosier families underscores the need for Indiana's policymakers to take active steps to expand access for the uninsured.

Here are some trends for Hoosiers - from 2000/2001 to 2011/2012:

• Indiana had the fifth largest decline in ESI coverage of the under-65 population, with only Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, and Nevada losing more in terms of percentages.

• Indiana had the single greatest loss in children’s ESI coverage, 18.2 percentage points.

• In our Status of Working Families report, we noted that over the last decade, ESI has declined for Hoosiers below 200% of the FPG faster than the rest of the nation.

• All told, 565,113 Hoosiers under the age of 65 lost ESI in the last decade.

Describing the decade-long decline and stagnation of ESI, Gould said: “The employer-sponsored health insurance system has been deteriorating for over a decade and is failing millions of our families across the country. The huge number of American workers who have not been able to access health coverage through their work highlights the value of public insurance programs and the Affordable Care Act in maintaining the health of our families.”

She's right. For the 13% (or 809,900) total uninsured Hoosiers, expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act would reduce the total number of uninsured Hoosiers by 28% - including 178,000 women. In all, the full implementation of Obamacare could reduce the total number of uninsured by 56 percent. Rather than continuing efforts to repeal or defund the ACA, Indiana's Congressional delegation and  state government should instead work to effectively implement and improve the law in order to put more Hoosiers on the path to economic self-sufficiency, and thereby help reduce the nearly 1,000,000 Hoosiers in poverty. 

Cato Study Disingenuously Presents Molehills as Mountains

By Derek Thomas

This week, the CATO Institute released a study suggesting that, despite growing poverty and declining wages over the past decade, Hoosiers participating in anti-poverty benefits were living the good life – making more than entry-level or minimum wage workers. Unfortunately, the deceptive study presents a rare exception and presents it as rule.

First, from Sharon Parrott at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on why the study is “fundamentally flawed”:

“It substantially overstates the help that poor jobless families receive: … very few families get that much help.  Just one-third of families that are eligible for cash assistance in the state they live in actually receive it.  Among those who do get help from TANF, Cato’s own figures show that just 15 percent also receive housing assistance.”

This is important as it is especially true for Indiana, which should, by the way, be a case study on the negative outcomes of punitive participation requirements that worked successfully to discourage dramatic reductions in TANF enrollment among Hoosier families during the Great Recession - just when they needed it the most. These are, by the way, the very same policies that CATO recommends. Only two other states, Arizona and Rhode Island, saw greater percent decreases in TANF caseloads during the same time period.

In Fort Wayne, the report was presented to Hoosiers as the “typical welfare recipient” or simply “those on welfare”.  However, this is very misleading.

For perspective, from 2007 – 2011, during the height of the Great Recession, the number of unemployed Hoosiers increased by 92.1% while TANF caseloads fell 51% – from 40,985 families to 20,046 families. In 2013, there were 29,016 individuals. That’s equal to just 2.9% of the more than 1,000,000 Hoosiers in poverty. Even more, as the study correctly shows, only 11.9% of those 29,016 individuals are also receiving housing assistance. Altogether, the number of families in Indiana that could potentially (although, not likely) be participating in all of the other programs under the CATO assumption is 3,452.  That’s just 0.34% of the 1,000,000+ Hoosiers in poverty. By the way, for a family of three, eligibility for TANF is at or below an annual income of $7,104.

If we’re serious about reducing poverty, and increasing the well-being of all Hoosiers, we should be less concerned about the minuscule percentages in CATO’s disingenuous report, and more concerned about the following, very real stats: more than 1 in 5 children live in poverty and 47 percent are low-income (more than all neighbor states, including Kentucky); more than 1 million Hoosiers over the age of 18 are in poverty and 2.24 million are low-income; more than 70% of Hoosier jobs are in occupations that pay less than 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines – that’s less than $39,060 for the same family of three referenced in their report (a single parent with two children); we have a larger share of jobs in occupations that pay at or below poverty wages jobs ($19,530 for a family of three) and jobs that pay at or below minimum wage than all neighbor states, including Kentucky; and wages have declined for lower- and middle-income Hoosiers over the past decade, while worker productivity has soared. 

Rewarding nearly a half-million hard-working Hoosier by increasing the minimum wage to its rightful levels would be a serious start, and has the overwhelming support of Americans. Instead, CATO, who by the way believes the U.S. should abolish the minimum wage, also suggests that for struggling families, the answer is to further cut benefit levels in an effort to nudge families into picking up a third, or, maybe a fourth job to make ends meet.  

More Challenges to Economic Mobility in Indiana

An interactive version of the above map is available from NY Times

By Derek Thomas

A recent study by economists from Harvard University and University of California at Berkeley caught the eye of many for its first-of-a-kind examination of factors relating to upward economic mobility. Armed with a massive database consisting of 6.3 million children born in 1980 or 1981 - spanning across more than 700 regions, or "commuting zones" in the U.S. - the authors examined the extent to which these children's parents income determined their own income at the age of 30. With this study in hand, states and regions can now evaluate their policies against hard evidence of what works, and what doesn't, to restore the American Dream.

Speaking of what doesn't work; that shows up clearly in an interactive color-coded map above. Six southern states make up the largest concentration of low mobility regions in the United States but significant concentrations of low mobility also extends into portions of the Midwest - and right into the heart of Indiana. Of the 50 largest cities in the U.S., Indianapolis ranks 48th - meaning that only in Charlotte, NC and Atlanta, GA do children from low-income families have less of a chance at escaping poverty. 

The authors of The Equality of Opportunity Project found four common sense factors associated with greater upward mobility: quality K-12 education; a large middle class and a lack of economic segregation by income; the number of two-parent families; and citizen engagement. The mobility barriers common to the southern region include a failure to invest in quality K-12 education especially for low-income families, a struggling middle class (all six of the southern states have right-to-work laws and low union density), high economic segregation, and a history of voter suppression. 

What’s the current status of mobility in Indiana as whole? Using the author's measures, Table 1 measures upward mobility in eleven Indiana regions and comparison regions. In only one (Vincennes) of eleven Indiana "commuting zones" featured in the study did low-income children have more than a 10% chance of escaping poverty. Table 2 (bottom of post) lists additional mobility measures and characteristics of eleven Indiana regions and comparison regions.

              

Characteristic of Indiana, positive relationships are also found between intergenerational mobility and the extent of a state's income tax progressivity and income inequality – ultimately extending to our children in a very real way. In another recent study on the lack of upward mobility in the U.S compared to other rich nations, the authors found that the average annual spending per child varies dramatically for “enrichment expenditures” (books, technology, childcare, etc.). Families from the lowest 20th percentile spent $1,300 per child, while families in the highest 20th percentile spent $9,000 per child. In Indiana - just one of eleven states without a state-run preschool program - the cost for childcare as a percent of income is 10th highest in the U.S., sometimes nearly half of a family's income. 

Given our research on the immediate barriers that Hoosier families face from the perverse incentives found in the design of childcare subsidies - known as the "cliff effect", the study caught our eye as well. Smoothing-out this benefit cliff by expanding access to high quality child-care would not only ensure that we are providing Hoosier children with the same advantages and opportunities to succeed as the rest of the developed world, it would also provide a path towards economic self-sufficiency and encourage two-income families by ensuring that marriage (and the resulting combination of incomes) makes financial sense. 

While the Equality of Opportunity Project isn't the first study to point towards similar findings, it is the most comprehensive look at intergenerational mobility to-date and should be considered by policymakers in attempts at restoring upward economic mobility for Hoosier families.