Montana Law Enforcement Leaders Brief Baucus On Crime Prevention Through Tax Relief

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 1, 2010)Montana law enforcement leaders met with U.S. Senator Max Baucus Thursday to call for the expansion of federal child tax credits for working families struggling in todays recession as an effective way to prevent future crime by reducing child poverty. Missoula Chief of Police Mark Muir, Cascade County Attorney John Parker and Gallatin County Sheriff James Cashell visited Washington to ask Montana Senator Max Baucus to help reduce crime by supporting an expanded child tax credit for low-income, working families. Baucus is in a key position to make this happen as chair of the Finance Committee, which has authority over taxation issues in the United States Senate.

Helping parents keep more of what they earn through the child tax credit can help reduce child poverty in the long run, County Attorney Parker said. I am a firm believer that getting relief to the most at-risk kids is critical to making sure our communities are safer in years to come.

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. 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.

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% decrease in conduct disorders and opposition defiant disorders behavior disorders that are closely linked to juvenile crime.

Obviously, an unemployed worker wont rob his neighbor after he gets laid off. But the research shows that children how grow up in extreme hardship during early childhood are significantly more likely to develop behavioral problems that lead to crime as adults. We want to prevent that from happening by expanding the child tax credit to help more working parents, Chief Muir said.

Chief Muir, County Attorney Parker and Sheriff Cashell asked Senator Baucus to reduce the earnings requirement for the child tax credit, which was expanded through the 2009 Recovery Act, down to the first dollar of earned income. This would make it possible for more low-income working families to receive the child tax credit. They also urged Baucus to, at a minimum, extend the current level of eligibility for the child tax credit.

Making more of this tax benefit available to working families will help relieve the worst effects of the recession on todays kids and also cut crime in the future, Sheriff Cashell said. I want to see more kids have a chance at a successful life so they dont end up behind bars. Thats why were supporting the child 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. Montana unemployment rate has spiked over the last year and a half; between October 2008 and April 2010, Montana unemployment climbed from 5 percent to just 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 will see their benefits significantly reduced or eliminated 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 to approximately $12,850, excluding even more poor, working parents from receiving the tax credit.

 

Chief Muir, County Attorney Parker and Sheriff Cashell are members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national anti-crime organization of police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and violence survivors with 59 members in Montana and over 5,000 members nationwide.

###