COLUMBUS, Ohio — A new bill in the Ohio House of Representatives aims to give families and expectant moms some help with the high cost of having and raising a baby.
The Strategic Tax Options for Raising Kids, or STORK Act, would allow families to claim "conceived" children as dependents on their state income tax returns in the year they are conceived rather than the year they are born.
The sponsor of House Bill 654, Republican State Representative Gary Click (R- Vickery), says the premise is simple — to support parents by giving them a small tax break.
"You don't wait until the day that baby's born to start spending money," Click said. "They're getting a nursery ready, they're buying a crib, they're buying a bassinet, they're buying a car seat. They're spending a loat of money on things to prepare for that child to come, but yet there's no acknowledgement."
Click says the $1,200 tax deduction would translate to a tax savings of about $60. It would apply to all families and expectant moms, but Click says it would be especially important for lower-income families.
"The working poor really deserve that extra 50 or 60 dollars that they're going to get from this tax deduction to help them as they start their new family or as they grow their family."
Click also points out Peterson-Kaiser Family Foundation statistics that show the average cost of giving birth in the U.S. in 2022 was $18,856. For those with health coverage, the average out of pocket costs were $2,854.
10TV caught up with a couple mothers of very young children at the Reynoldsburg branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Danessa Smith's baby girl Nova is just seven weeks old. She says the number of things she had to buy, from baby toenail clippers to new clothing really added up.
"Those tiny little things that you wouldn't really think about that you use in your everyday life that you need to get really miniature stuff for a baby," Smith said.
Teresa Coulter said her 11-month-old son Lewis is her first child.
"With him being the first I really didn't know what I was doing, what I needed," Coulter said. "We had to start from scratch. We had to buy all the furniture like a crib, a changing table. baby gates. babyproofing kind of stuff."
The bill couldn't help these moms with the costs of their new babies, but they say an earlier tax break would have been nice.
"It would have been very helpful just to kind of soften the blow of those bigger purchases," Coulter said.
"I think it's a fantastic idea to try and help out parents who are trying to do the best they can for their little ones," Smith said.
Rep. Click is anti-abortion and was against the abortion rights constitutional amendment voters approved in November 2023. However, he says the STORK Act is not about undercutting the rights secured by that amendment or defining an embryo or fetus as a person.
"Anyone who knows the law knows that a simple bill in the legislature, a tax deduction, cannot override the constitutional amendment," Click said. " I wish it was that easy because I do support personhood, but it doesn't work that way. I don't have the power to do that. I admit I lost. My side lost, but let's move on to something that can help everyone."
Miscarriages are not addressed in the current bill, but Click says he does not believe the state should penalize families experiencing such a traumatic loss after they likely have had expenses preparing for the baby's arrival.
He says that issue will be clarified in the legislation, likely in the next General Assembly after the new year. That is because he does not expect the bill to pass in the limited time left in this General Assembly. If it does not pass, he says he will reintroduce it next year.