Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has signed into law an expansion of a tax credit for people who pay for child care and dependent care.
The following was provided by the governor's office about the new law:
- Expands the current law nonrefundable child and dependent care tax credit from 50% of the federal credit to 100%;
- Increases the maximum qualifying expenses that may be claimed for one qualifying individual from $3,000 to $10,000 and for two or more qualifying individuals from $6,000 to $20,000; and
- Applies for tax year 2024 and would reduce individual income tax receipts by an estimated $72.9 million annually.
That’s good news to Maria Carrillo. She has three kids — two of them in child care — and with care prices often more than $200 per child per week, Carrillo says that means she has to be really good at budgeting.
“That's where you have to sort out what comes first. So we have to provide our roof, food and child care for us to continue working," Carrillo tells WUWM.
Carrillo says after her youngest child was born, she considered leaving the workforce rather than add to her child care costs. But so far, she remains on the job, at La Casa de Esperanza, a school and community center in Waukesha where Evers signed the child care credit expansion Monday morning.
The governor’s office says the change should help about 110,000 people in Wisconsin, with an average benefit of about $650 per tax filer.
Carrillo says thumbs up to that.
“It will play a huge part for those moms who are struggling to just make ends meet and have to then figure out do I have to pay my rent, do I feed my kids, or do I pay child care?" she says.
The change in the child and dependent care credit can’t be used until filing next year’s tax forms.
Evers signed the bill a few days after vetoing other tax cuts also passed by the GOP-controlled state legislature. The Democrat explained his choice to news reporters.
“The other tax cut bills would have done two things. They would have put us in a position where we couldn’t do Child Care Counts and frankly could have cost us the entire surplus that we have in a matter of months and that is unacceptable because we have public schools to fund and other things,” he says.
Evers also says the state might've had to give some aid back to the federal government, because he says federal officials made it clear during the COVID-19 pandemic that using federal money to lower state taxes, "was unacceptable."
Child Care Counts is an assistance program for the child care industry that Evers says is vital to keep more centers from closing. Last year, he put more of what he calls emergency stopgap money into the program, to fund it at current levels until June, 2025.
Despite Evers' explanations about the tax cut vetoes, Republicans are roasting him for — they say —stopping changes that would have helped the middle class, seniors and married couples.
