Michigan Law Enforcement Leaders Back Child Tax Credit To Cut Crime
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 9, 2010
Contact: Kathy Pelleran, kppelleran@fightcrime.org
Cell: 517-643-5981, Desk: 517-803-2463
Southfield, MI (September 9, 2010)Law enforcement leaders are calling for an extension of the federal child tax credit for working families struggling in todays recession as a way to prevent future crime. Releasing a new report on the connection between child poverty and crime, Southfield Police Chief Joseph Thomas, Jr., Auburn Hills Police Chief Doreen Olko, and Macomb Community College Captain Thomas Wilk called on members of Michigans Congressional Delegation to help further reduce crime by supporting the extension of the current child tax credit for low-income, working families.
Most kids who grow up poor never become criminals, but research shows that the risk of becoming a violent offender is two and a half times higher for low-income kids than for the rest of children. American children are more likely to be living in poverty than any other age group. In Michigan, approximately one-in-five children is growing up in poverty.
Were not saying that theres an instant connection between poverty and crime. An unemployed factory worker wont run out and steal his neighbors property after getting laid off. But we are saying that kids who grow up in severe poverty or extreme hardship are more likely to develop problems that will lead to crime, Dr. Joseph E. Thomas, Jr., Chief of Police in Southfield and the State Co-Chairman of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Michigan said. We want Congress to keep tax relief for working parents to help shield low-income kids from the worst this recession has to offer.
Research published in the well-respected Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that when parents income was increased above the poverty level, children in those no-longer-poor families experienced a 40% decrease in conduct disorders and opposition defiant disorders behavior disorders that are closely linked to juvenile crime.
The law enforcement leaders asked members of Michigans Congressional Delegation to extend and make permanent the current level of eligibility for the Child Tax Credit. The current expansion of the child tax credit expires at the end of this year.
They specifically called on U.S. Rep. Sander Levin to extend the current earnings requirement for refund eligibility so that vulnerable families can continue to receive the refundable tax credit. Levin is the chair of the Ways and Means Committee, which has authority over taxation issues in the House of Representatives. Also, they called on U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow to support an extension of the child tax credit; Stabenow is a member of the Finance Committee, which handles tax issues in the Senate.
We would like to see the current structure of the child tax credit extended so that hundreds of thousands of children in Michigan will not see their benefits reduced or eliminated. This is a crime prevention investment that will help make communities safer, Chief Olko said.
As a result of the recession, many parents are now unemployed or underemployed, or have lost significant portions of their income or savings. Michigan unemployment rate increased from 9.4 percent in October 2008 to 13.2 percent in June 2010.
Allowing working parents to keep more of what they earn will help improve financial security, reduce child poverty and ultimately cut crime in the long run. Kids often suffer the most when parents struggle with the economy. As a society, we need to ensure that kids get the chance to go to college instead of to jail. Its important to help the most at-risk kids today, so they dont become tomorrows most wanted adults. Captain Wilk said.
The current child tax credit provides help to 583,000 Michigan children who could lose these benefits or see them substantially reduced if Congress takes no legislative action. Currently families only get the refundable credit, which is 15 percent of earned income up to a maximum of $1,000 per child, once they have earned at least $3,000. If Congress does not act, the threshold will increase from $3,000 up to approximately $13,000, excluding even more poor, working parents from receiving the refundable portion of the tax credit.
The law enforcement leaders are members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national anti-crime organization of police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and violence survivors with 453 members in Michigan and over 5,000 members nationwide.
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