Members of the Committee, please accept this written testimony urging you to pass House Bill XXX recommending the formation of a task force on work and family. I can think of few issues more critical to the fabric of life in our state than this one. I am a divorced mother of a seven year old girl. I hold a senior level management position at the XXXXX where I earn a decent, if modest salary and enjoy health insurance and other benefits. I have chosen to work in the not for profit sector, even though salary levels are not comparable to work in the business world, for the past seventeen years as I believe strongly in giving back to my community and enjoy the work I do to support our states' artistic and cultural community. I am one of the lucky ones. I have a supportive co-parenting relationship with my ex husband who shares custody of our daughter for half of each week and who provides me with some child support. I have been able to purchase a modest condominium, (primarily because it was impossible to rent an apartment in my home city of Manchester for less than what my mortgage ended up being). To look at me from the outside it would be easy to wonder what if any struggles I actually had compared to single mothers without access to adequate daycare, healthcare and who struggle to make ends meet without child support. Yet I live day to day and week to week "white knuckling" to make ends meet, to provide a decent home for my daughter, to keep the heat on, to keep the lights on, to insure the car that drives her to school each day, to scramble for care during those dreaded weeks when school is over but daycamp hasn't started. To figure out how to come in late to work each day during school breaks when daycamp starts at 9am and the office opens at 8:30. To pray that it doesn't snow, your child doesn't get sick, the old appliances hold out for another year, and the water heater doesn't start leaking because life is so precariously balanced that any one thing going wrong can set you back weeks or months. The day I received my new property tax bill for the city of XXX I cried. I felt utterly abandoned by my city. How can I keep providing for my child, working full time and keep pace with a city that thinks I have a spare $500 sitting around to pay this tax increase and yet there is never a corresponding rise in the level of services. I rejoice at warmer days that mean the heat can get turned down lower than the 60 degrees I keep it at night. I don't shop. I don't move my car during the day because I can't afford the extra gas. Every spare dime is for my daughter and every week brings another $6 field trip here, $12 hot lunch order there, $125 vacation day camp bill here and my stomach sinks as I try to figure out what will go off the table so she can participate. And again. I'm one of the lucky ones. My ex husband shares these expenses with me and I can scrape by so many many mothers do not have that luxury and have to scramble to make do on even less. But this increasing pinch on the time and resources of working parents is becoming a stranglehold. This testimony is to urge you to look deeper at the issues facing working moms, single moms, single dads and families throughout this state and take critical steps to address what can be done to address their needs. Families are the bedrock of our state and our children are its future leaders. Please act to establish this task force so that we ensure that our state stays livable for families of all sizes and income levels and that our children grow up secure, healthy and knowing that Our state is there for them. Investing in our families and children is the wisest investment in the future we can make.