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AUGUSTA, MAINE (November 10, 2017) — Today, Ivanka Trump joined a round table with Senator Susan Collins and U.S. Treasurer Jovita Carranza to discuss republican tax legislation. A provision of the legislation that Ivanka Trump has advocated for, the childcare credits, would leave out Maine’s most vulnerable children.
Sarah Austin, policy analyst at the Maine Center for Economic Policy released the following statement: “Maine’s child poverty rate has increased faster than anywhere else in the country; a child care benefit that leaves behind Maine children in low-income families while extending benefits to families with six-figure incomes is just wrong.”
The proposed credit would exclude 29,000 low-income Maine children, another 41,000 Maine children from middle-income families would receive only a partial benefit. At the same time, married couples with two children and incomes between $150,000 and $294,000 would become newly eligible for the credit.
The full tax legislation is expected to cost $1.5 trillion over the next ten years, and some congressional Republicans have made clear that they intend to come back next year and try to pay for these tax cuts by cutting programs for seniors and families like Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, affordable housing, and the part of the budget that includes Head Start and college aid; programs that hundreds of thousands of Mainers depend upon.
“The Republican House plan is fundamentally flawed—prioritizing benefits for the wealthy, large corporations, and foreign investors over everyone else,” Austin stated. “Sadly, these misplaced priorities are reflected in proposed changes to the childcare credits and actually go one step farther by eliminating access to the credit for those who need it most.”
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