Menendez, Booker ready to barter for extension of tax credits that help NJ poor

Key provisions of two federal tax credits that help working families are set to expire at the end of next year. Advocates for the poor are urging Congress to make the tax breaks permanent.

 Serena Rice, who leads the Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey, said  the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit are critical for working families.

“It’s used to pay off heating bills that have piled up over cold winter months. It’s used to finally get the car fixed so that it won’t suddenly die when the wage owner is going out to work,” she said Monday. “Families use it to buy clothes and shoes for growing children.”

New Jersey’s two U.S. senators are joining advocates in expressing support for those credits. A vote against extending the credits would increase taxes on millions of working families, said Sen. Bob Menendez.

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“In New Jersey alone it would raise taxes on 219,000 families by nearly $256 million and drag 213,000 children back into the depths of poverty,” he said.

Sen. Cory Booker said he’s hoping for a compromise with Republicans in Congress to make the credits permanent.

“We will be happy to give business tax credits by the way that are needed in the state of New Jersey, but what we want in return for that is tax credits for working families that are so critical in our state to getting people above the poverty line,” Booker said.

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