Nevada Law Enforcement Back Child Tax Credit

Feb 4th 2009

RENO, NEV. -- Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong and Carson City District Attorney Neil Rombardo held a news conference Wednesday to support the expansion of federal child tax credits for working families struggling with the depressed economy. Washoe County Undersheriff Todd Vinger also participated in the event.

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. Because of this link, 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 research brief, click here.

"Those of us in law enforcement know too well the consequences of growing up in a family that can't make ends meet," Furlong said. "The child tax credit will help working parents provide for their families and prevent those kids from ending up on the wrong side of the law."

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 expands 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.

"This will deliver needed relief to Nevada's workforce," said Masto, referring to the expanded child tax credit in the House version of the recovery bill. "It will also help make sure that this economic downturn doesn't lead to a generation of future criminals."

In the United States, children are more likely to be living in poverty than any other age group. In Nevada, one in seven of all children are living in poverty.

In just one month, from November to December, Nevada's unemployment rate went up a full percentage point, meaning more families may slip into deep poverty. The Child Tax Credit proposals in the recovery package that passed the House would provide needed help to 96,000 Nevada children. The recipients of the fully refundable credits are the families most likely to spend the money rather than save it.

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.

"A better child tax credit system will allow working parents to devote more of what they earn to providing for their kids," Rombardo said, "and when that happens, it will dramatically reduce the odds that those kids will end up criminals and that you or someone you love will end up a victim."

Cortez Masto, Rombardo and Furlong urged Nevada Sen. Harry Reid to ensure that the final version of the bill provide full refundability of child tax credits for struggling families who need them. They 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 24 in Nevada.

To read Fight Crime: Invest in Kids' report concerning the Child Tax Credit, click here.

###