O’Mara, Curry, Borowski commend child and dependent care tax credit expansion with local families
Rep. Jennifer M. O'Mara January 23, 2024 | 4:27 PM
SPRINGFIELD, Jan. 23 — State Rep. Jennifer O’Mara, joined by other Delaware County lawmakers and local officials, celebrated Pennsylvania’s recently expanded child and dependent care tax credit with local families at the Springfield YMCA.
The new law now matches the federal credit on state taxes. This boosted the maximum state credit from $630 to $2,100 for Pennsylvania families.
Accompanying O’Mara to highlight the tax credit expansion were Michael Rank, president and CEO of the YMCA of Eastern Delaware County, and Trisha McFarland, president of the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce. Rank and McFarland both discussed how the Springfield Y has a strong impact on the community by providing affordable and accessible quality child care.
“By increasing the tax credit to a 100% match of the federal credit, we are helping working families, middle class families, families who are struggling to take care of kids or dependents or who are unable to pay the bills,” O’Mara said.
State Reps. Gina Curry and Lisa Borowski, both D-Delaware, lauded the expansion by sharing the struggles they faced seeking quality child care.
“I know that without this, people are going to continue to struggle, and really with this, people will struggle. There’s so many people right now who are paycheck to paycheck and trying to figure out how they’re going to do it every day,” Curry said. “When I was looking for child care, we had to figure out what we could pay, and that was really important. People may look at us and say, ‘you’re a two-parent household, you’re college educated,’ but it didn’t matter. At the end of the day, we had a mortgage and had to feed our children.”
Borowski added that seeking out quality child care was difficult 20 years ago, and the demand has only increased.
“I was really worried about where my son was going to go when my three months of maternity leave were up,” Borowski said. “I really needed that care, I must have left deposits at five or six different places. It was definitely stressful and I know now it’s even more stressful. Certainly having this child care tax credit is going to be super helpful for families across the county and across the commonwealth.”
Photos from the press conference are available on O’Mara’s website: https://pahouse.com/OMara/PhotoGallery?g=5834&PH=50779.
More information on the tax credit and how to file for it is available on the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue’s website.