The state treasurer’s office is exploring the creation of a baby bonds program that would set up government trust funds for qualifying infants to use when they get older, and is turning to ServiceNet’s diversity coordinator to help analyze the idea.
ServiceNet’s Gisenia Stewart has been named to Treasurer Deborah Goldberg’s Baby Bonds Task Force, which has been charged with providing recommendations for creating the baby bonds program.
Baby bonds set up government trust funds for qualifying infants. When these infants come of age they can then take money from their trust for such things as going to college, starting a business or buying a house.
“We can ensure that every child has access to capital and asset-building opportunities,” Stewart said.
The baby bonds effort is being spearheaded by the Office of Economic Empowerment, which Treasurer Goldberg founded and is overseen by Alayna Van Tassel, deputy treasurer and executive director. Van Tassel said the office wants to bring leaders and interested parties into the task force to craft policy recommendations for the program.
“We really wanted to make sure we had something geared toward Massachusetts,” Van Tassel said.
Stewart, 31, is the diversity, equity and inclusion coordinator at ServiceNet, a human services agency that is based in Northampton but provides services across the Pioneer Valley. A married mother of four, she lives in Holyoke and identifies as both a woman of color and a Latina.
“I think it aligns with so many areas of my life,” said Stewart, on why she applied to be part of the task force.
In addition to the mission aligning with her identity as a woman of color and a mother who didn’t inherit wealth, Stewart noted its connection with her recognizing inequity within communities and her status as a doula.
Stewart said that baby bonds could “close the racial wealth gap” and give people of color and/or folks of lower income a head start.
“Wealth protects you,” she said.
Van Tassel agreed, noting that research shows baby bonds can have the most impact on children from the lowest income families and can have a strong impact on the racial wealth gap.
The more than 60-person task force has already met. The task force learned about the Washington D.C. and Connecticut baby bond programs, as well as the national program that’s been proposed by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Boston.
Under the Connecticut program, every baby whose birth is covered by the state’s HUSKY health program will have up to $3,200 deposited into the CT Baby Bond Trust, to be invested by that state’s treasurer’s office. These deposits will start with babies born on July 1, 2023.
Funds under the program can be claimed from age 18 to 30 to start or invest in a Connecticut business, buy a house in Connecticut, pay for higher education or save for retirement. Completion of a financial literacy course is required to withdraw funds.
The task force has now broken out into subcommittees to flesh out a proposal for Massachusetts, with Stewart serving on the eligibility and funding subcommittee.
Stewart said she hasn’t always had the space and opportunity to be involved with a momentous thing like baby bonds. She also said equity is important for the redistribution of resources in society, which she thinks baby bonds can help with.
Van Tassel said the expectation is that the task force will release recommendations this fall, and that the treasurer will file legislation in the 2023 to 2024 legislative session.
“I hope that we have a large number of sponsors,” Van Tassel said, noting that the task force does contain a number of legislators.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.