Montana Law Enforcement Leaders Back Child Tax Credit To Cut Crime
BILLINGS, Mont. (August 11, 2010)Montana law enforcement leaders released a research report today and called for the extension of the enhanced federal child tax credit for working families struggling in todays recession, as an effective way to prevent future crime. Meeting with members of the media, Yellowstone County Sheriff Jay Bell said that Congress can help reduce child poverty and prevent crime by extending the refundable 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 our children.
Research published in the well-respected Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that when parents income is increased to above the poverty level, children in those no-longer-poor families experienced a 40 percent decrease in conduct disorders and opposition defiant disordersbehavior disorders that are closely linked to juvenile crime.
Allowing more lower-income families to keep more of their earned income would help more families make ends meet, lift more children out of poverty and decrease the likelihood that the children will commit crimes as adults.
Too many folks are still struggling with this recession. Its plain common sense to make sure people keep more of what they earn through tax benefits like the child tax credit, and by helping the kids in those low-income families, we can also help ensure that todays recession doesnt cause a generation of future criminals, Sheriff Bell said.
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 tax credit, and reducing the credit for many more low-income families.
Senator Baucus chairs the Finance Committee, which has authority over taxation issues in the United States Senate. In June, Missoula Chief of Police Mark Muir, Cascade County Attorney John Parker and Gallatin County Sheriff James Cashell spoke with Senator Baucus about the importance of extending the current structure for the child tax credit, which was expanded through the 2009 Recovery Act.
Sheriff Bell and other law enforcement leaders offer the Senator the support of law enforcement in the effort to extend the current earnings requirement for refund eligibility so that vulnerable families can continue to receive the refundable tax credit.
American children are more likely to be living in poverty than any other age group. In Montana, approximately one in six children are growing up in poverty, and the recession is only making things worse. As a result of the recession, many parents are now unemployed or underemployed, or have lost significant portions of their income or savings. Montanas unemployment rate has increased over the last year and a half; between October 2008 and June 2010, Montana unemployment climbed from 5 percent to over 7 percent.
The current child tax credit, as enhanced by the recovery package, provides help to 55,000 Montana children in low-income families, who could lose these benefits or see them substantially reduced if Congress takes no legislative action. Sheriff Bell said he supports extending the current level of benefits for the child tax credit as expanded through the Recovery Act.
We know that Senator Baucus is a strong supporter of tax relief to help Montanas families, and I support his efforts as leaders in Congress work to secure tax benefits that will help those struggling with the recession. Providing more families with the refundable child tax credit will make sure fewer kids grow up in extreme poverty today and that our communities will be safer in the future, Sheriff Bell said.
The research is clear that children who grow up in sustained hardship during childhood are more likely to become troubled kids and then adult criminals. The child tax credit will deliver needed relief to kids in low-income families and help improve public safety in years to come, said Martha Brooks, Western States Regional Director for FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS.
Sheriff Bell is a member of FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS, a national anti-crime organization of police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and violence survivors with 64 members in Montana and over 5,000 members nationwide.
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