Every two years, CFED rates states on their progress toward implementing 12 core policies as part of our biennial publication of the Assets & Opportunity Scorecard. The most recent edition of the Scorecard assessed the progress states had made through February 2007.
To keep advocates, practitioners, and policymakers up-to-date with the latest information on these policies, we have collected data on policy developments between February 2007 and July 2008. In most cases, we collected data on both policy victories as well near misses.
- Use the tabs at the top of this page to navigate to each of the 12 policy pages for a state-by-state breakdown of developments on a particular policy.
Policy action was widespread:
- 46 states & the District of Columbia enacted or attempted to enact legislation on the 12 core policies (see Figure 1).
Successes were substantial:
- more than 80 positive policy changes were made, resulting in an additional $325 million for asset building and the protection of $396 million of existing financial resources from asset stripping.
There was action on each of the 12 policies:
- activity focused on state EITC, curbing predatory lending and support for community development lenders. Figure 2, below, shows the policy changes made. For more detailed information, click the tabs at the top of this page.
Figure 1: Number of states that took policy action between February 2007 and July 2008
Figure 2: Details on state policy changes on the 12 core Scorecard policies
Policy |
# changes |
Description of policy change |
Asset limits |
9 |
4 addressed Food Stamps; 4 exempted certain accounts; 1 raised limit |
College savings |
5 |
4 new programs; 1 taskforce (4 attempts) |
CDFIs |
4 |
4 success (2 pending, 8 attempts) |
EITC |
12 |
4 new; 8 improved existing policy (1 pending, 4 attempts) |
Housing trust fund |
5 |
3 improved existing policy; 1 increased $; 1 taskforce (1 attempt) |
IDAs |
10 |
8 increased $; 2 decreased $ (10 maintained same $) |
Medicaid/SCHIP |
11 |
1 increased to 100% of FPL; 3 inc. 101-199%; 7 inc. to 200%+ |
Microenterprise |
9 |
5 increased $; 4 decreased $ (12 maintained same $) |
Pred. lending |
15 |
mortgage: 15 success (2 pending, 1 attempt); payday: 4 success |
Pre-K |
15 |
5 parity w/ K-12; 5 class size; 2 added BA req.; 5 removed BA |
K-12 spending |
11 |
3 increased $; 3 defined funding formula; 5 taskforces |
Tax expend. repts. |
2 |
2 success (1 pending, 3 attempts) |