Throughout his time in office, Sen. Michael Bennet has prioritized children and families with his advocacy of the Child Tax Credit for low-income families.
In 2023, his advocacy continues, as Bennet urges Congress to keep expanding the credit even after the pandemic.
“What we’ve seen from the studies of the United States’ experience with the Child Tax Credit is a similar thing that we’ve seen in other countries that have similar forms of a child credit. Which is, not surprisingly, parents spend the money on their kids,” Bennet said in a news release.
These efforts are built on Bennet’s introduction of the act in 2015, intended to “modernize” the tax credit for middle-class and low-income families. Through increased value of the tax credit, these families received a larger refund from the credit on their tax returns.
That became increasingly important during and after the pandemic, when parents had to leave work to take care of their children full-time. In La Plata County, the median household income is less than $80,000 and about 10% of people live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census.
That makes the credit significant to Colorado’s working-class families – the expansion cut child poverty nearly in half and hunger for families by a quarter, benefiting 90% of Colorado children in 2021, according to a news release.
“I remember one (family) in Colorado Springs, in particular, who said she had been able to buy her kid a bike, and with that bicycle, that kid was able to attend after-school activities that they would never have been able to attend, because otherwise, she would have been at work with the car and there was no way to get the kid (there),” Bennet said. “You can’t calculate what the value of that is.”
Nationwide, nearly 3 million children were lifted out of poverty.
In February, Bennet and U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., called on the IRS to promote child care credit through employers.
“I heard parents who were spending money on child care, as I mentioned earlier, spending money on rent, spending money on school clothes. I had moms who said, ‘This is the first time that I’ve been able to buy school clothes for my kids without not having to forego the rent,’” Bennet said.
Sarah Mattalian is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at smattalian@durangoherald.com.
