The New York State Legislature recently passed a child tax
credit bill that thousands of Jewish families stand to
benefit from.
The law allows families whose gross household income is under
$100,000 (or $75,000 for single-parent families) to receive a
state tax credit of $330 for every child between the ages of
4 and 17. Thus an eligible family with, for example, seven
children within this age range would receive $2,310 per year.
Tuition at most religious Jewish elementary schools is around
$10,000 per child per year, and discounts are given only with
great difficulty.
Proposed a few months ago by Governor George Pataki, the tax
credit is intended to help families cover educational
expenses, including tuition. State Senator Martin Golden and
Assemblyman Vito Lopez of Brooklyn led the campaign through
the legislative process.
In February the bill got a big push when a coalition of
private and independent schools (whose members include Agudas
Yisroel of America) and an organization called Teach New York
State sponsored a demonstration of thousands of parents and
students in Albany.
In March the State Senate and State Assembly reacted by
drafting various child tax credit bills. These proposals,
although unrelated to educational expenses, would have
granted parents substantial tax breaks.
Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz, Agudas Yisroel's Vice President for
Communal Affairs, together with activist R' Yehoshua
Estreicher and Agudas Yisroel advisor R' Mordechai Beiser,
worked in cooperation with House of Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver and Senate Majority Leader Josef Bruno to bridge the
gap between the two proposals. The reformulated bill they
submitted was eventually passed.
"This is not the tax credit the Governor proposed," says
Rabbi Dovid Zwiebel, Agudas Yisroel's vice president of
government and public affairs, "but in terms of the monetary
benefit for the community, it could be said this is the most
significant legislation whose passage we have been involved
in. This is a real historical step and our elected officials
deserve tremendous appreciation for this, along with
hakoras hatov from the bottom of our hearts."
