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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcover memoM.2 The Honorable Members, January 8, 2004 City of Miami Commission City's Poverty Initiative Earned Income Tax Credit Campaign Manuel A. Diaz Mayor REQUEST: I would respectfully request your support of the accompanying resolution approving the enclosed Poverty Initiative Plan and authorizing the expenditure of $194,400.00 to underwrite the 2004 citywide Earned Income Tax Campaign Plan, This initiative will consist of the following Of a citywide campaign that will last for a period of three (3) months and will have scheduled media, community and public relations outreach efforts to achieve a greater awareness by the citizens of Miami who currently qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit/Child Credit but do not apply. Moreover, this campaign will also seek to provide the necessary information to assist those residents who have traditionally applied for the Advanced Refund through private tax prepares of the negative consequences of such an activity. AUDIENCE The audience for this campaign will be as follows: 1) Citizens/Residents who have one or more children and currently make less that $39,000 annually. Specifically: a. Recent Hispanic and Haitian immigrants b. African Americans 2) Non-traditional professionals in the finance industry with specific attention to those who traditionally service those sectors of our community such as Notary Public, CPA's and other neighborhood entity that. 3) Small and mid size business in our community who have more than one non - owner employees that may have employees that qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit: a. Supermarkets/Local Groceries b. Barber Shops & Beauty Salons c. Restaurants d. Manufactures 1 e. Retailers f. Others MESSAGE The message should encompass an overarching theme as to the benefit of applying for the Earned Income Tax Credit. Furthermore, this theme will relate to both of our primary audiences African Americans between the ages of 25 and 55 married with one or more children and Hispanic/Haitian immigrants between the ages of 28 to 55 married or divorced with one or more children. Furthermore, subsequent target messages will be developed for each audience as follows: 1) African Americans: Why they should not apply for the advanced refunds. 2) Hispanic & Haitian Immigrants: Why they should not be concerned with applying for this credit and how the information will be only be used for tax preparation services. OUTLINE OF THE CAMPAIGN This campaign should focus on several mechanisms for the devolution of information to the target audience that should at least include the following: 1) Media 2) Direct Mail 3) Community Outreach The following will discuss in brief some of the goals and proposed strategy for the implementation of the campaign through these different mechanisms. 1) Media: The City will seek to partner with the major news outlets in the community in an effort to achieve a Public Service Campaign that delivers the above message to each of the groups mentioned. This campaign should focus on television, radio & print in an effort to achieve as much saturation of the message for the prescribed audience. In addition, the City of Miami will seek to do as much outreach through the various talk shows or other radio and televised mediums in an effort to better inform the public of the benefits of the applying for the Earned Income Tax Credit, specifically on those shows whose target audience best identifies our target clientele. a. Television: ii. Production: One (1) thirty (30) second commercial. iii. Airing: Between January 21 st through February 20th and March 22"d through April 15th iv. Target Stations: a. General Market 1. WSVN 2. WTVJ & Partner Stations 2 nurnose other roan nrocessutu Luis cieuu. b. Hispanic c. Cable 3. WPLG 4. WFOR & Partner Stations 1. WLTV 2. WSCV 1. Comcast 2. Miami TV a. Radio ii. Production: One (1) sixty (60) second commercial. iii. Airing: January 21 St through February 20th and March 22"a through April 15th iv. Target Stations: 1. General Market a. Clear Channel Stations in Miami i. Y-100 ii. 103.5 FM iii. 99.5 JAMZ b. WMBM c. WLRN Radio 2. Hispanic a. Univision Radio b. Spanish Broadcasting c. La PoderosalCadena Azul d. Caracol e. Radio Paz 3. Other Markets a. Radio Carnaval (Haitian) 2) Direct Mail Three pieces should be developed for the three-month campaign to target the individual specific audiences mentioned below. a. Mailer # 1 i. Target: professionals, CPA's Notary Publics and other traditional tax prepare. ii. Target Drop Date: January 9tn iii. Message: Importance of getting clientele to fill out Earned Income Tax Credit, what is the monetary significance to the client and how the information used for these forms cannot be used for any other purpose other than processing this credit. b. Mailer #2 i. Target: Hispanic residents of the City of Miami between the ages of 25-55 married or divorced with at least one child per household. 3 ii. Target Drop Date: January 23`d iii. Message: Importance of filling out Earned Income Tax Credit in not doing so and how the information used for these forms cannot be used for any other purpose other than processing this credit, c. Mailer #3 i. Target: African American residents of the City of Miami between the ages of 25-55 married or divorced with at least one child per household. ii. Target Drop Date: April 2nd iii. Message: Importance of filling out Earned Income Tax Credit and reason for not doing the advanced refund. 3) Community Outreach The Community Outreach portion of this campaign to create greater awareness of the Earned Income Tax Credit will include activities such as the scheduled press conference on our about January 15th to announce the opening of the services centers, Editorial Board presentations to the Miami Herald and Diario Las Americas and any other event determined to have a significant media or community impact. Aside from the aforementioned the City will also be opening a phone services center to supplement all the media activity and service calls from the public for additional information on the Earned Income Tax Credit and/or Child Tax Credits. This center will be operational on January 15th and will remain open with flexible staffing hours until April 9th. Furthermore, this center will also serve as a phone bank for the targeted outreach to take place between January 21st through February 20th and March 22" through April 15th to all target residents who shall be identified through screening of the potential caller and other methods. Finally, the service center will also serve as a general information or referral center for potential clientele to visit or call to discuss the Earned Income Tax Credit with a trained staff person to be available during hours of operation. In addition, to these activities the City will seek to coordinate events focused at the many Community and Religious Organizations within the target areas in an effort to better inform them of the benefits of the Earned Income Tax Credit and where to get additional information. NET Office and Super Site Operations: In 2004 NET Offices will be added to the Community Outreach effort for the EIC with the targeting of five neighborhoods, Allapattah, Model City, Little Haiti, East Little Havana and Wynwood, for free Income Tax Filing at the NET Offices. This filing will be handled by 22 Americorps Volunteers who have been granted by the Federal Government for such operations between the dates of January 15t' through April 2". 4 Aside from the NET operations during normal working hours, the City will be sponsoring 3 Super Site Centers were volunteers from the University of Miami, Florida International University and the IRS will service the community during the off hours three times a week and on Saturdays beginning January 21st and ending April 9`h. These centers will be supervised by 3 qualified CPA's who will supervise the volunteers and assure that the centers operate in accordance with the parameters developed by the IRS coordinators who will be their direct supervisors during the course of this effort. The sites currently under consideration for this effort are the Orange Bowl Athletic Club to Service Little Havana and the adjacent communities, Corpus Christi Community Service center in Allapattah and M. Athalie Range Park for the Little Haiti and Model City communities. These centers would operate a minimum of three days a week between the hours of 5 to 9 pm and Saturday between the hours of 9 am to 2 pm. Funding for said initiative is available from an account entitled Special Revenue Fund — Poverty Initiative. 5