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In full transparency, the following is a press release from the Maura Healey for Governor campaign submitted to SOURCE media. SOURCE publishes these press releases as a community service.

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BOSTON – In response to the rapidly rising cost of living in Massachusetts, gubernatorial candidate Maura Healey today released an affordability proposal that would simplify and substantially increase the tax credits paid to parents of young children in Massachusetts. 

Under Healey’s proposal, every family with a child under age 13 will receive an annual check of $600 per child. This benefit would also apply to families with dependents with disabilities or over 65. This proposal would offer direct economic relief for more than 700,000 families across Massachusetts.

“The best way to help families dealing with high costs right now is by making meaningful investments while also putting money back in people’s pockets,” said Maura Healey. “Tax relief must be part of the solution. Increasing and expanding our child tax credits will give families $600 per child to go toward the costs they are struggling to pay.”

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Healey’s proposal would merge the Household Dependent Tax Credit and the Dependent Care Tax Credit into one Child Tax Credit. She would more than double the value of the existing tax credits being offered and remove the dependent cap currently set at two dependents. Healey would also index the credit to inflation moving forward. This would allow tax filers to simply include the number of dependents (children under age 13, individuals age 65 and over, and persons with disabilities) on their returns in order to receive the credits. 

Currently, the Household Dependent Tax Credit is for all families with dependents, but it is capped at two dependents with a $180 benefit per dependent, for a maximum benefit of $360.

The Dependent Care Tax Credit is for child care-related expenses, but it is also capped at two dependents with a $240 benefit per dependent, with a maximum benefit of $480.

Under current law, a tax filer may choose either tax credit but cannot choose both. A family with two dependents who previously received the Dependent Care Tax Credit would get a maximum of $480 – under Healey’s plan, that family would receive $1200 in tax relief.

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The Healey Child Tax Credit proposal would have numerous benefits. As inflation and the cost of living continues to burden Massachusetts residents, this proposal would put more money back in their pockets. Large families would no longer be excluded from additional assistance. Further, the fully-refundable tax credit would help address the economic crisis stemming from our under-invested child care system, and families who don’t use professional child care would also see an added impact. This will be especially impactful for Black and Latino families, which are more likely to rely on informal child care. Overall, this proposal also would streamline and simplify the tax filing process for Massachusetts families.

Healey supports consideration of additional tax relief proposals as part of an overall approach to reducing costs for people.

In addition to tax relief, Healey has also proposed and supported major investments to reduce costs for families across Massachusetts. This includes:

  • Common Start legislation that would make child care free for low income families and ensure that no family pays more than 7% of their income on child care costs.
  • Increasing housing supply through state investment, addressing local zoning barriers and protecting 40B. Increasing first-time home ownership and closing the racial wealth gap by expanding down payment assistance and housing counseling.
  • Improving reliability and expanding access to affordable public transportation through increased investments in transportation infrastructure, including supporting the Fair Share amendment that would provide more than $1 billion in additional revenues for transportation projects and education programs.

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By editor

Susan Petroni is the former editor for SOURCE. She is the founder of the former news site, which as of May 1, 2023, is now a self-publishing community bulletin board. The website no longer has a journalist but a webmaster.