At presser, from left: U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Rebekah Moore, State Rep. Sean Scanlon, State Sen. Martin Looney.
Rebekah Moore will get one $250 check — then her state and federal representatives will fight to have the government send more checks in the future to working parents like her.
That was the upshot of a press conference held Monday inside the Dixwell Q House gymnasium.
Elected officials held the conference to celebrate the passage of a one-time child-tax rebate in Connecticut, and to declare their commitment to trying to make child tax credits permanent not just in Connecticut, but in Washington, D.C.
The state budget taking effect July 1 includes a refundable tax credit of $250 per child for up to three children for lower and middle-income families. To qualify, parents can visit this webpage starting June 1, when they’ll find a dedicated link there to apply. The state plans to mail the checks in August. The families of estimated 600,000 children are eligible.
The one-time credit follows the passage last year of a one-time federal child tax credit of up to $3,600 per child, as part of the pandemic-relief American Rescue Plan. New Haven U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro led the passage of that measure over an 18-year period. Once passed, it led to the single fastest and largest child-poverty cut (41 percent) in history, according to one study. But the tax cut expired at the end of 2021, and, DeLauro noted, child poverty is rising again.
The state credit, passed as part of a broader budget update, also expires after one go-round unless legislators vote again to extend it or make it permanent.
In D.C., DeLauro said, she is continuing to work on making the credit permanent. She said she sends information to fellow Democrat Joe Manchin, a U.S. senator who opposed DeLauro’s proposal, and stays in touch with Republicans like U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, who have authored differed versions and may be open to compromise. DeLauro said she is opening to discussing a maximum income eligibility lower than the $400,000 in her measure’s first version.
State Rep. Sean Scanlon, who authored the Connecticut version (“I got this idea from Rosa”), and State Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney said they’ll continue as well to work to keep the tax credit in future budgets.
In making their cases, the three Democrats highlighted pitches expected to be heard nationwide on the campaign trail this year, as their party seeks to counter a so-far successful Republican strategy (based on opinion polls) blaming Democrats for inflation-magnified financial struggles facing families. In Connecticut, Democrats from the governor on down are running as better “tax-cutters” than Republicans, with a twist.
“People are living paycheck to paycheck. They’re struggling. They need a break. They need a government that is looking out for working families,” DeLauro declared. She and Looney contrasted their proposals for lower-income and working-class tax credits to federal tax cuts going to “the top one-tenth of one percent” of income earners and large corporations.
“There are many well-off families in Connecticut who are doing quite well,” Looney added. He grouped the child tax credit with his Capitol team’s successful efforts to raise the minimum wage and earned-income tax credit as part of a strategy to help families at the middle and lower ends of the income spectrum.
“If we can’t find $300 million to help 600,000 children in a $46 billion [two-year] budget,” said Scanlon, who’s currently running for state comptroller, “shame on us.”
“I’m not giving up,” DeLauro promised. “I’m in the fight for parents like Rebekah.”
She was referring to Rebekah Moore, a program director at the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and mom of an 18-month son named Curtis Bernard. Moore joined the elected officials at Monday’s press conference to praise the value of the child tax credits.
Asked how she’ll spend her $250, Moore answered without missing a beat: “day care.”
She said she is holding off on having a second child until Curtis Bernard is old enough to attend public pre-school.
“Day care,” Moore said, “is literally a second mortgage.”
You can watch the full press conference in the above video.