Many Americans took a double whammy to the pocketbook this year: Prices for things like food and rent rose, and federal pandemic aid continued to peter out. But a string of states took a cue from one of those relief measures — the expanded federal child tax credit — and are stepping in to help bridge the gap.
That tax credit was a pandemic success story. Enacted in 2021, it cut child poverty in half before it expired at the end of that year. Poverty rates shot right back up in 2022.
Since then, the number of states that have created their own permanent child tax credit has doubled.
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