Senate passes bill aimed at breaking cycles of intergenerational poverty

Published: Wednesday, Feb. 6 2013 10:45 a.m. MST

According to a report on intergenerational poverty by the Department of Workforce Services, the number of individuals under the age of 18 who live in poverty is 136,751, just under 16 percent of the state's child population.

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SALT LAKE CITY — A bill to create a state commission of five state department heads to develop policy recommendations to end intergenerational poverty unanimously passed the Utah Senate on Wednesday.

SB53 calls for a commission made up of the executive directors of the state departments of health, human services and workforce services, as well as the state superintendent of instruction and the juvenile court administrator.

The commission would collaborate on recommendations "to rescue children out of intergenerational poverty and welfare dependency," said Sen. Stuart Reid, R-Ogden, the bill's sponsor.

The bill also creates an advisory committee of representatives of faith organizations, child advocacy groups and nonprofit organizations to assist the commission.

— Marjorie Cortez

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Tolstoy

salt lake, UT

@erik

you mean like the money we are already spending on intergenerational poverty, did you ever think it might be a good idea to try to figure out what we are doing that is not working and that that might actually save some of those oh More..

5:17 p.m. Feb. 6, 2013
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Erik Kengaard

Falls Church, VA

What kind of legislation would do that, without costing the taxpayers?

11:41 a.m. Feb. 6, 2013
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tabuno

Clearfield, UT

As a former discouraged Salt Lake School Board member who resigned in part because of the limited ability of schools alone to address a persistent problem of poverty that literally eliminated the opportunity of low-income children from receiving a More..

1:10 p.m. Feb. 6, 2013
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