Mississippi Developmentally Disabled Individual Tax Credit

To:  Mississippi Legislature and Mississippians

Thank you for visiting our petition!

In 2005, my husband and I celebrated the birth of our first child. Kinsey Nicole Sumrall was born 4 months prematurely and weighed 1 lb. 11 oz. She spent 104 days in the NICU and suffered many complications from her premature birth. She is now three years old and is severely disabled. Kinsey is blind and cannot walk, talk, or care for herself. She has uncontrolled seizures and requires continuous medical care. Having her in our lives has been an incredible blessing and a tremendous education. We are now advocates for disabled children and their families.

As a result of our newfound advocacy through Kinsey, we have enlisted Senator Lee Yancey in our cause. Senator Yancey is introducing a bill this 2009 legislative session that proposes a $500 tax credit for families with disabled children. Several states have laws offering small tax credits to families with disabled children. Our bill will be based on a similar law in Arkansas (as described below).

But first, a few words about Mississippi...

In Mississippi, 20% of our households have one or more children with special needs. A reported 32% of families with special needs children have to cut back on work hours or quit working to care for their children. In fact, a recent national survey revealed that mothers of disabled children who continue working encounter a decrease in hourly pay by 6%.

According to the Catalyst Center (Boston University School of Public Health: Health and Disability Working Group), families with special needs children experience considerable financial hardship. More than 11% families in the US spend over $1000 out-of-pocket on healthcare needs. 1.6% families spend over $5000. For Mississippi families, this means nearly $11,000,000 at a minimum of out-of-pocket expenses.

Financial hardship results from 3 proposed pathways:
1) Cost of services for special health care needs
2) Higher "routine" expenses
3) Loss of employment income

Our proposed law will be based on the law in Arkansas, known as the $500 Developmentally Disabled Individual Tax Credit (in addition to the regular dependent tax credit).

Covered diagnoses would include:
Cerebral Palsy
Epilepsy
Autism
Down's syndrome
Mental Retardation

Requirements as follows:
1) Eligible individual must be natural child or adoptive child, without regard to age.
2) Individual must be reliant upon taxpayer for more than 50% of his/her maintenance, support, and care in taxpayer's home.
3) Individual must be physically/ mentally handicapped to the extent that he/she is incapable of managing himself/herself or his/her affairs and must be eligible for admission to an authorized intermediate care facility.
4) Individual must not have resided in one of these facilities for more than 6 months of the tax year.
5) Individual must be unable to engage in any gainful activity by reason of physical or medical impairment which can be expected to end in death, or has lasted and is expected to last for at least 12 months.

We would greatly appreciate your support of this bill. Please let your legislators know of your commitment to helping Mississippi families of disabled children by signing below.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Mississippi Developmentally Disabled Individual Tax Credit Petition to Mississippi Legislature and Mississippians was created by Mississippi and written by Ashley Love Sumrall (ashleylovesumrall@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.