For more information about our work in your state or in our national office use the drop down menu below.

Arkansas Members Advocate for Child Tax Credit Extension to Cut Crime

THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT GAZETTE

Groups fear for child tax credit
They urge extension to help keep kids from turning to crime

By Charlie Frago

LITTLE ROCK – Congress should extend the federal child tax credit to prevent future crime, said Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, law enforcement chiefs and a national crime group Wednesday.

The child tax credit was launched during the Clinton administration but expanded during the presidency of George W. Bush. It is part of a broad package of tax cuts enacted by Congress earlier this decade, including reductions in personal income tax levels and a phase-out of the estate tax.

Congress is expected to decide which tax cuts to keep or scrap in the coming months.

The concern among law enforcement officials and prosecutors is that the child tax credit – currently a maximum of $1,000 per child for households earning between $3,000 and $110,000 – could get sacrificed in a nasty budget fight.

“We want to elevate the issue so it doesn’t get lost,” said Jeff Kirsch, vice president of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national group based in Washington, D.C., that includes more than 5,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, attorneys general and violence survivors.

If nothing is done by Dec. 31, the tax credit will decrease to $500 per child and the income eligibility requirement will rise to $12,850, affecting nearly 225,000 Arkansas children, Kirsch said.

A research brief by the group cites a 1989 study by Cambridge University in the United Kingdom showing that boys from the poorest quarter of families were 2.5 times more likely to be convicted of violent crime as adults as all other boys.

In Arkansas, the poorest quarter of families would have incomes under $25,000.

Many of these families depend on the refundable part of the tax credit to make ends meet during the year, Kirsch said.

McDaniel said tough law enforcement is necessary to curb crime, but the state should “take every opportunity on the front end to prevent crime.”

Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay, who has presided over a chronic space crunch at the county jail, said that providing poor families more economic support will pay off down the road.

“We all know that it’s cheaper to help those kids now than to fund a jail bed or prison cell,” he said at a news conference in McDaniel’s office.

England Police Chief Herman L. Hutton Jr. said extending the tax credit is “about preventing crime before it happens.”

Hutton said he understands the “fiscal pressure” facing the federal government, but urged lawmakers to support the extension.

Losing the tax credit would be a wicked blow to the state’s poorest residents, say advocates.

It “would devastate working families… the Child Tax Credit is one of the most effective ways to fight chronic poverty in our state. We cannot afford to move backwards – especially as we are working so hard in other areas to help families become self sufficient,” said a news release from Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.

So far, not many lower income families have voiced concern about the expiration of the credit, the group says, partially because so many people are unaware of it because they don’t personally fill out tax forms.

“Our fear is the backlash once it’s gone,” said Brett Kincaid, Arkansas Advocates’ outreach director.

Fight Crime, the D.C. group, estimated extending the credits would cost about $8 billion to keep the income threshold at $3,000. Preserving the $1,000 maximum credit would cost billions more, but an exact figure wasn’t available Wednesday.

The officials and advocates at the news conference urged Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor to support the extension.

Pryor’s spokesman Michael Teague was succinct in his response: “We’re for that.”

Lincoln, who has a seat on the Senate Finance Committee, also said she would support an extension. She fought to enact the credit in 2001.

“I have consistently led the fight to ensure low-income working Arkansans can take full advantage of the child tax credit,” Lincoln said in a statement. “A permanent expansion of the credit for as many working Arkansas families is a top priority for me.”