Latest news with #ChildCareAvailabilityandAffordabilityAct
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Readers on the need for child-care support and a close call
Working families with young children in Oklahoma need support finding and affording child care. Updating child care tax credits like the ones included in the Child Care Availability and Affordability Act sponsored by Sens. Katie Britt, of Alabama, and Tim Kaine, of Virginia, would help. In his role on the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. James Lankford, of Oklahoma, can help prioritize the needs of working families by including these provisions in the upcoming tax package. Expanding tax credits like the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) would put more money in parents' pockets for child care. This tax credit helps children thrive while recognizing child care as a necessary expense that helps parents go to work. However, it hasn't been updated in more than 20 years, so it hasn't kept pace with what child care actually costs. Currently, the average credit families receive is $587. Under the Britt-Kaine proposal, a parent with one child paying $12K for child care ($1K per child per month) would receive a credit of $1,750. Parents with two children would receive even more. Families with young children can't push pause on their child care needs and deal with it a few years down the road — kids don't work like that! Protecting and expanding the CDCTC is a pro-family and pro-work solution that benefits everyone. ― Elissa Kuykendall Want the latest Viewpoints? Sign up for the Public Square newsletter. I've enjoyed our articles about the 1995 bombing, and I have a small anecdotal event that happened on that dreadful day. I was an officer at a bank in El Reno, American Heritage Bank, and the morning of the bombing I had an 8 a.m. meeting at the state Capitol. The day before, one of our officers, Robert Hadley, who had reached retirement age, came in to let me know he had an appointment the next morning at the Social Security office at the Murrah Building to set up his Social Security benefits. Because of my meeting at the state Capitol, I asked Robert if he could move his meeting time at the Social Security office. Minutes later he told me he was able to get a 2 p.m. appointment, and that he and his wife and a 10-year-old grandson would make that work. We know what happened that morning and I was walking in the parking lot when the bomb went off. I felt the explosion like everyone else did. Once we realized how narrowly Bob, his wife and grandson had avoided being in that office, he retired that week knowing how precious life is. Thank you for sharing the moment in history that we all wish had never happened. ― Douglas Tippens, El Reno More: Oklahoma City bombing, 30 years later: Our city's stories of strength, healing and hope Oklahoma's rural counties are facing a crisis. With limited behavioral health services and high rates of substance use and incarceration, it's time we invest in real, community-driven solutions. That's why I'm writing in support of Senate Bill 251. This letter is part of a statewide advocacy project I've been working on with my classmates at the University of Oklahoma's School of Social Work. Over the past few months, our team has written policy briefs, hosted conversations, and even met with professionals and policymakers to advocate for this bill. SB 251 stood out to us because it offers a practical, much-needed path toward justice and healing across Oklahoma. The bill creates the County Community Safety Investment Fund and ensures every county — no matter how small — receives a minimum share of funding to build or strengthen local programs. These services include crisis response teams, recovery support, and jail diversion programs. These kinds of services are critical. People living in rural Oklahoma are 57% more likely to struggle with meth or opioid use, and nearly one in three rural women report experiencing intimate partner violence, according to the Oklahoma Council for Justice 251 isn't just smart policy — it's the kind of investment that could make our communities safer, healthier and more hopeful. I truly hope our lawmakers will move it forward this session. — Victoria Mendez, OU-Tulsa School of Social Work This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: How a family narrowly missed the OKC bombing | Letters
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sen. John Curtis joins proposal to encourage businesses to make child care more affordable
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to make child care more affordable for parents by providing tax credits for businesses that provide options for their employees. The Child Care Availability and Affordability Act, being introduced in the Senate this week, seeks to update current tax provisions to make child care more affordable while also creating a program to boost the number of child care workers. Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, has signed on to the bill as a cosponsor, calling the proposal a 'practical, commonsense solution' to support working families. 'It's becoming increasingly difficult to raise a family, due in large part to the high cost of child care. Quite frankly, parents deserve better,' Curtis said in a statement. 'By updating tax credits that help cover child care costs and supporting businesses that provide caregiving benefits, our bill puts money back into the pockets of hardworking parents.' The bill is being led by Sens. Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Tim Kaine, D-Va. The bill would bolster the Employer-Provided Child Care Tax Credit to further encourage businesses to provide child care to their employees, particularly small businesses. The proposal would increase the maximum credit from $150,000 to $500,000 and increase the percentage of covered expenses from 25% to 50%. Those incentives would be larger for small businesses by increasing maximum credit to $600,000 and would allow small businesses to enter into joint applications to pool resources. The legislation would expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to make it partially refundable, allowing lower-income families with out-of-pocket child care expenses to benefit from the credit for the first time, according to the legislation. In doing so, the tax credit would expand maximum benefits to $2,500 for families with one child and up to $4,000 for families with multiple children. The expansion would be the first update to the tax credit program in more than two decades, during which child care costs have risen by more than 200%, according to lawmakers. The proposal would also strengthen the Dependent Care Assistance Program to allow families to deduct up to $7,500 more in expenses. The DCAP would then be decoupled from the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to benefit middle-income families with high child care costs but do not have access to the latter due to income restrictions. 'This commonsense proposal is about more than just addressing our child care crisis — it is a direct investment in the hardworking families and local small businesses striving to achieve their American Dream across our nation,' Britt said in a statement. 'I'm proud of this effort to empower parents, which ultimately opens the door to more opportunities for their children and tackles our nation's urgent workforce needs to help unleash a new era of American prosperity.' The same legislation has already been introduced in the House, led by Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Salud Carbajal, D-Calif. Similar bills have been introduced in previous Congresses but have not been passed through both chambers to be enacted.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sen. John Curtis joins proposal to encourage businesses to make child care more affordable
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to make child care more affordable for parents by providing tax credits for businesses that provide options for their employees. The Child Care Availability and Affordability Act, being introduced in the Senate this week, seeks to update current tax provisions to make child care more affordable while also creating a program to boost the number of child care workers. Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, has signed on to the bill as a cosponsor, calling the proposal a 'practical, commonsense solution' to support working families. 'It's becoming increasingly difficult to raise a family, due in large part to the high cost of child care. Quite frankly, parents deserve better,' Curtis said in a statement. 'By updating tax credits that help cover child care costs and supporting businesses that provide caregiving benefits, our bill puts money back into the pockets of hardworking parents.' The bill is being led by Sens. Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Tim Kaine, D-Va. The bill would bolster the Employer-Provided Child Care Tax Credit to further encourage businesses to provide child care to their employees, particularly small businesses. The proposal would increase the maximum credit from $150,000 to $500,000 and increase the percentage of covered expenses from 25% to 50%. Those incentives would be larger for small businesses by increasing maximum credit to $600,000 and would allow small businesses to enter into joint applications to pool resources. The legislation would expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to make it partially refundable, allowing lower-income families with out-of-pocket child care expenses to benefit from the credit for the first time, according to the legislation. In doing so, the tax credit would expand maximum benefits to $2,500 for families with one child and up to $4,000 for families with multiple children. The expansion would be the first update to the tax credit program in more than two decades, during which child care costs have risen by more than 200%, according to lawmakers. The proposal would also strengthen the Dependent Care Assistance Program to allow families to deduct up to $7,500 more in expenses. The DCAP would then be decoupled from the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to benefit middle-income families with high child care costs but do not have access to the latter due to income restrictions. 'This commonsense proposal is about more than just addressing our child care crisis — it is a direct investment in the hardworking families and local small businesses striving to achieve their American Dream across our nation,' Britt said in a statement. 'I'm proud of this effort to empower parents, which ultimately opens the door to more opportunities for their children and tackles our nation's urgent workforce needs to help unleash a new era of American prosperity.' The same legislation has already been introduced in the House, led by Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Salud Carbajal, D-Calif. Similar bills have been introduced in previous Congresses but have not been passed through both chambers to be enacted.
