Sheriffs, Police Chiefs Chief Back Child Tax Credit
Feb 4th 2009
CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA -- Cedar Rapids Police Chief Greg Graham, Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner, Dubuque County Sheriff Ken Runde and Marion Police Chief Harry R. Daugherty held a news conference at the Cedar Rapids police station Wednesday to support the expansion of the federal child tax credit for struggling families trying to make ends meet in a volatile economy.
"Law enforcement knows too well the result when kids get off to a bad start in life," Graham said. "Expanding the federal child tax credit will bring relief to families who need it and help ensure that their kids won't end up in the back of a squad car later on."
The law enforcement leaders released new research about the link between low incomes and criminal activity. While most kids who grow up poor never become criminals, growing up in poverty increases the risk of involvement in crime. Lowering the threshold for families who could receive a child tax credit would lift more children out of poverty and decrease the likelihood that they will commit crimes as adults. To read the report, click here.
Congress is currently considering the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, intended to kickstart the ailing economy. The version of the bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and the version now pending in the Senate expand eligibility for the child tax credit, allowing more working parents to receive the refundable credit. The House version of the recovery legislation, however, would help even more struggling families than the Senate version. In the coming days, Congressional leaders from both houses will meet to reconcile the two versions of the bill.
"The economy is hurting right now, and ordinary, working folks are hurting right alongside it," Gardner said. "Making this available to more families will give them the resources to stick it out and help their kids avoid a life of crime."
Iowa's unemployment rate, now 4.6 percent, has spiked almost a full percentage point in the last year. The Child Tax Credit provisions in the House version of the recovery package would go to the families of provide needed aid to 144,000 Iowa children if approved-families most likely to spend the money rather than save it.
"We can prevent many, many crimes by lifting children out of a life of poverty and put them on track for a successful future," Daugherty said.
Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that when parents' income is increased to above the poverty level, children in those families are significantly less likely to turn to a life of crime. By allowing working parents to keep more of their income, the child tax credit would help more families make ends meet and ensure that fewer children are exposed to the worst risk factors for crime.
Graham, Gardner and Daugherty are members of FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS, an anti-crime organization of more than 4,500 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and violence survivors, including 117 in Iowa.
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