Scottsdale Independent | The Child Tax Credit gets Arizona back to work
In my first year on the Scottsdale City Council, I have spoken to many business owners and parents about their desire to get people back to work.
Parents want to provide for their families, but are hampered by child care as well as health and education concerns for their families. With the expanded Child Tax Credit, parents see a path to full employment while still taking care of their children’s needs.
The Child Tax Credit is a benefit granted to American tax-paying parents for each qualifying dependent child. Designed to help taxpayers support their families, this credit was expanded by the American Rescue Plan this year.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult on all of us, but for families with children in particular the difficulty has been even more profound. The CTC expansion could not have come at a better time. It offers relief to provide parents, many who left the workforce to care for family members, the cushion they need to train for new jobs, look for work, and return to jobs they left at the height of the international health scare.
Workforce development is one of my priorities as a public official, so moving toward full employment by strategically inserting funds where they are most needed is a worthy goal to achieve success.
A survey commissioned by Humanity Forward, a bi-partisan organization advocating for the CTC, found that 72% of parents prefer the expanded monthly payments they received, which allows and encourages them to budget and utilize credit for critical family expenses. The credit also allows them to set money aside as emergency aid.
In essence, reliable monthly receipt of funds empowers parents to make smart financial decisions; to plan rather than react.
This is the kind of direct, practical response to a problem that we should welcome. Without the bureaucracy of traditional welfare programs, the monthly cash relief for families offers an efficient and effective alternative that incentivizes work and personal responsibility.
The Humanity Forward survey found that low-income families, who are often the recipients of traditional and often wasteful welfare programs, were more likely than higher-income families to spend the credit on essentials for their children.
And, for me, that’s the best news; the extended credit benefits children. I’m a mom who is fortunate to have income that allows my children freedom to be healthy and attain a good education. Yet, I know numerous families where such freedom is not as readily available for their children.
I hope that everyone in Scottsdale will learn more about the benefits of the CTC and get behind a policy that was designed to promote our values of freedom, family, and responsibility.
Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly need to know that Arizona families support the temporary extension of this important program.
It’s clear that the benefits derived from the expanded CTC, both personally and economically, far outweigh the cost. This type of targeted aid will not only boost the recovery for our city as we chart our economic path from the pandemic, but it will have meaningful long-term effects.
Editor’s Note: Tammy Caputi is vice mayor of Scottsdale.