Poverty

A proposal to raise Maryland's minimum wage from $7.25 to $10 by 2013 is in danger of getting the kind of lukewarm reception lawmakers in Annapolis usually reserve for root canals or ethics legislation. Leaders are promising to "take a look" at whatever crosses their desks on the subject — but not much more than that. It doesn't help, of course, that some in the business community are already calling the measure a jobs killer, their reflexive response to all minimum-wage proposals.

I was dismayed to read your support of cutting education funding in your editorial of Jan. 4 ( "Easy choices and hard ones for Md.'s budget gap" . One in five residents of Baltimore City lives in poverty; the numbers of those in poverty in the county and in other jurisdictions are increasing. A quality education is what provides opportunities and hope to families that their children will experience less economic hardship. Poor children in the city and across the state will suffer disproportionately under any cuts to public education, and this is unjust.

It is a cruel paradox that at times like these — when the lingering recession, unemployment and foreclosure crisis have stretched more and more families to the brink — the donations to the very charities that can help them make it through begin to dry up as well. At the United Way of Central Maryland, a good barometer for charitable giving in the region, donations dropped by 6 percent to 8 percent in each of the last two years, and amid a tentative recovery, they are expected to grow by just 1 percent this year.

For decades, Baltimore County was the place affluent families moved when they left the city, a place that boasted lower taxes, less crime, better schools and more stable neighborhoods. But what's been happening in Baltimore County during the last decade is something different: the spread of poverty from the city into the county. The Census Bureau released figures this week showing a statistically significant increase in the poverty rate in Baltimore County since 2000 — a rise from 6.5 percent to about 8 percent.

Maryland has maintained its perch as the nation's wealthiest state, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau, though more residents in some suburbs were living in poverty than in 2000. The census information contained some good news for Baltimore. Residents in the city - as in the rest of the state - made strides in education, with greater proportions holding high school diplomas and college degrees.The mix of residents of Baltimore's suburbs, meanwhile, shifted noticeably.

Maryland has maintained its perch as the nation's wealthiest state, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau, though more residents in some suburbs were living in poverty than in 2000. The census information contained some good news for Baltimore. Residents in the city — as in the rest of the state — made bounds in education, with greater proportions holding high school diplomas and college degrees. The mix of residents of Baltimore's suburbs, meanwhile, shifted noticeably.

Maryland again got a middle-of-the-pack ranking among states for the health of its residents, according to a report issued Tuesday from health research and advocacy groups that looked at a host of government measures and private data. Maryland was unmoved from last year's ranking at 21st by the United Health Foundation, the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention. To make its ranking, report authors assess behaviors, public and health policies, community and environmental conditions and clinical care data.

Needy people are having a tougher time getting by in prosperous Howard County as the continuing recession and high living costs pinch even working people with incomes far above outdated federal poverty guidelines, a recent county report on poverty says. Though the county's median household income is $102,540, many families facing high rents, medical and transportation costs are just squeezing by — or not — according to statistics gathered by the county's Board to Promote Self-Sufficiency.

The 2009 census shows that one in seven Americans now live below the government's laughable poverty line for a family of four: $21,954. (How many more families of four live between $21,955 and, say, $31,954 a year? Are they not impoverished?) More than 20 percent of all children are poor. We have not seen these levels since the 1960s. Recession and the loss of millions of American jobs in the last three years have been cited as the reasons for the recent rise in poverty. But there's a lot more to it than that.