House Revenue & Finance Committee Meeting

The floor is yours. Thank you. So House Bill 274 with House Substitute 1. So basically what this bill does is it strengthens Delaware's child and dependent tax, child and dependent care expense tax credit. So right now, Delaware provides a state tax credit equal to 50% of the federal child independent care credit. So this bill would increase that to 100% match, effectively doubling the relief available to working families. Child care is one of the biggest expenses families face in Delaware. The average cost is about $12,000 per child per year. And many families are spending a significant portion of their income just to stay in the workforce. This bill recognizes a simple reality. You can't work if you can't afford care. And this hits home for me in that when I one of the reasons I spaced my kids so far apart, there's four and a half years between my kids is because I couldn't afford two kids in childcare at the same time for very long. And I had two kids in childcare for six months. And during those six months, we were spending over $3,500 a month on child care. And it was a scary…