ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 5, 1995 TAG: 9512050078
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: DAVE SKIDMORE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DIVORCED PARENTS who don't get custody and those with college-age kids aren't included. And don't those with more children use more services?
From almost any angle, the Republicans' proposed $500-per-child tax credit looks like a sure-fire crowd pleaser. But there's an undercurrent of discontent.
Although some lawmakers would rather cut the budget deficit, or want lower income eligibility caps, no one has doubted the credit's sheer political popularity.
However, resentment simmers among those left out. They include childless taxpayers, parents of children too old to qualify - 18 and older - and divorced parents without custody.
``I do not have a chance to claim any exemptions, being single,'' Emerald Star of Hendersonville, Tenn., said in a letter to a GOP tax reform commission. ``I have been working since I was 15 to support myself and frankly am sick of `families' receiving aid.''
In fact, she represents the majority of taxpayers. Only 29 million households will get the credit, in effect shifting some of the relative tax burden onto the other 86 million households.
The National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform, headed by former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp, solicited one-page letters in Money magazine and in other forums.
Most letters focus on the long-range issue before the commission, whether a flat-rate income tax or a consumption tax should replace the current system. But many writers also commented on this year's legislation, which includes the credit.
Earlier this year, President Clinton proposed his own per-child credit. So some form of it seems to have the best chance of any tax provision to survive negotiations between the administration and Congress. Whatever the outcome, not everyone will be happy.
``Do not limit the $500 tax credit to just families,'' wrote Wayne Wealer of Newport, Ore. ``Retirees and all other middle-class taxpayers need tax relief as well. Taxation is putting us all in the poor house.''
John Mallah, a Miami Beach attorney and president of the Association of Separated American Parents, said divorced parents without custody deserve the credit, as well as ``Ozzie-and-Harriet'' families.
``We want to provide for our children. ... Unfortunately, we are often prevented from doing so because of our diminished living standard,'' he said.
Some, such as Joyce Ball of Danville, Ill., agreed with the Republican push to funnel tax relief to parents above the current $2,450 exemption for dependents.
``Who can raise a child on $2,450 a year?'' she asked.
But others want stricter limits.
``A change ... to allow a deduction for only one or two children would be an incentive to produce less children,'' wrote Fred R. Chapman of Virginia Beach, Va.
And Delores C. Smith, a biofeedback and stress management therapist in Twin Falls, Idaho, said parents should pay higher, not lower, taxes.
``Those with more children utilize more services and hence should be taxed more heavily, rather than given a tax break,'' she wrote.
GOP aides involved in drafting the ``Contract With America'' said legislators never considered the credit could have a political down side. And, despite the letter writers' complaints, analysts following the tax debate doubt it will.
``Most of the people who aren't getting the tax cut ... are young single people. They're generally the most politically inactive group in the country,'' said J.D. Foster, executive director of the Tax Foundation, a business-financed research organization. ``And for most people, the absence of a tax cut is not something they readily notice.''
But tax lobbyist Clint Stretch of the Deloite-Touche accounting firm said parents whose children are in high school now, and who would lose the credit in a few years, may soon be pressuring Congress to expand it.
``There's a time bomb built in there. ... Why would you try to increase someone's taxes just as they're trying to send their kid to college?'' he asked.
One of the leading advocates of the tax credit, Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., said the same people complaining about cutting taxes for families with children likely also are complaining about juvenile crime, drug abuse and the decline of educational performance.
``If we don't reinvigorate the American family with a mom and dad in the home, then we're going to lose the battle on these other fronts,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 86 linesby CNB