Good morning, Chair Eldridge, Chair Madaro, and members of the Committee.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of H.3073/S.1957, and S.1975.
My name is Charlotte Bruce, and I am the Director of Policy for Children’s HealthWatch, a network of pediatricians and child health researchers based at Boston Medical Center.
I also lead the Healthy Families Tax Credit Coalition—a statewide network of more than 80 organizations and institutions working to expand and strengthen the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child and Family Tax Credits.
First, I want to thank this Committee and the Legislature for last session’s near-unanimous expansion of these two credits.
By recognizing them as proven, bipartisan tools to reduce poverty and strengthen family financial stability, you delivered millions of dollars to your constituents and families across the Commonwealth.
The bills before you today build on that progress in two essential ways:
First, outreach.
- Currently, just 82% of eligible workers claim the EITC in Massachusetts—and uptake for the new Child and Family Tax Credit is likely even lower.
- Families who don’t file taxes, especially very low-income families, miss out not only on state credits but also on federal ones, leaving millions of dollars on the table.
- These bills would direct the DOR to lead a coordinated, multilingual outreach campaign — partnering with employers, benefit programs, municipalities, and community groups to ensure every eligible family knows about and claims these credits.
Second, these bills strengthen the credits themselves. They would:
- Extend the EITC to immigrant and mixed-status families who file with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number;
- Remove the EITC cap on families with more than three children;
- Expand EITC eligibility to younger and older workers without children in the home, reflecting the realities of today’s labor force;
- Extend the Child and Family Tax Credit to all children under 18—currently only available up to age 12; and
- Increase the credits’ value—raising the state EITC match from 40% to 50% of the federal credit and boosting the Child and Family Tax Credit from $440 to $600 per child, with inflation adjustments.
In addition, S.1975 would increase the EITC match rate for workers without children and extend the $600 credit to SSI recipients who do not already meet eligibility—closing a critical gap in support for some of the Commonwealth’s most financially vulnerable households.
These changes are urgently needed—for reasons my colleagues from the coalition will describe shortly.
Census data released this month show that nearly 1 in 10 Massachusetts families live below the poverty line—earning less than $25,000 for a family of 3.
At the same time, federal safety net cuts and rising costs of living are straining household budgets. The Massachusetts Poverty Commission’s recent report explicitly points to these bills as opportunities to reduce poverty and strengthen economic security.
For all of these reasons, I urge the Committee to report these bills out favorably. Thank you for your leadership and for the chance to testify today.
Charlotte Bruce, MPH
Director of Policy, Children’s HealthWatch
Lead, Healthy Families Tax Credits Coalition