FACTSHEET: HOW DELAYING BUILD BACK BETTER HURTS ARIZONANS

With Every Day That Passes in 2022, Arizonans Are Feeling the Impact of Congress’ Failure to Pass the Build Back Better Act

The expiration of several crucial public investments on January 1, 2022, including the expanded child and earned income tax credits, means that Arizonans are already being hurt by the failure to pass the Build Back Better Act.

Here’s a rundown of how Arizonans are being impacted until Congress passes the Build Back Better Act:

Child Tax Credit + Earned Income Tax Credit 

• 13% of Arizona children live in poverty, and over 1.38 million qualify for expanded Child Tax Credit payments.

• The Build Back Better Act would extend the expanded Child Tax Credit of $300 per month per child under 6, or $250 per month per child ages 6 to 17.

• Without the Build Back Better Act, eligible Arizona single parents and married parents will miss out on up to $4,700 or $3,800 a year, respectively, from expanded Child Tax Credits that they could use to pay bills and put food on the table.
• Without the Build Back Better Act, 385,200 working Arizonans will miss out on up to $1,500 in tax cuts from the extension of the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit.

Child Care

• Without Build Back Better, Arizona will lose the chance to create and support an estimated 21,240 new jobs over 10 years.

• Without Build Back Better, Arizona married parents will miss out on average savings of up to $9,400 a year on child care costs.

• The Build Back Better Act could provide child care access to about 430,000 low-income Arizona children, and ensure families pay no more than 7% of their income for high-quality child care.

Elder Care + Home & Community Based Services (HCBS)

• Without Build Back Better’s investments in services to support older people and people living with disabilities, Arizona will lose the chance to create and support 2,900 new jobs each year over ten years.

• These investments could also add an estimated $5.3 million in additional income each year for current workers and their families in Arizona.

Universal Pre-K

• Only about 23% of Arizona 3- and 4-year-olds has access to publicly-funded preschool; preschool in Arizona costs about $8,600 per year for those who can’t access a publicly-funded program.

• Without Build Back Better, Arizona would miss out on expanded access to free preschool for over 134,000 additional 3- and 4-year-olds, and improve the quality of preschool for those already enrolled.

• The Build Back Better Act would raise wages for child care and pre-k workers, leading to an overall increase in wages of $5.7 million to these Arizona workers.

Clean Energy

• Arizona is home to 56,504 clean energy jobs; the Build Back Better Act would set the U.S. on a course to reduce up to 52% of greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030, continuing to support and create these good-paying-paying Arizona jobs.

• Without the Build Back Better Act’s investments in clean energy, Arizona would miss out on over 69,800 jobs making Arizona homes and businesses more energy efficient.

• The Build Back Better Act would make historic investments in clean energy technologies, and help middle class families save money transitioning to clean energy electrification.

Paid Leave

• More than 616,000 Arizonans work in frontline industries, facing challenges managing family caregiving needs.

• Failure to pass Build Back Better would remove an additional $370.5 million more annually in Arizonans’ paychecks through wage replacement and increased economic activity.

• The Build Back Better Act would permanently authorize the first-ever national paid family and medical leave guarantee, providing up to four weeks of paid leave.

Child Hunger

• In Arizona, 15% of children live in food insecure households.

• Without Build Back Better, Arizona will miss out on expanded access to free school meals to an additional 262,000 Arizona students, and summer lunch programs for 603,923 students.

Housing

• 410,000 Arizonans are rent burdened, spending over 30% of their income on rent; renters have to work 1.8 full time jobs 73 hours per week earning minimum wage to afford a 2-bedroom rental home.

• The Build Back Better Act would expand rental and down payment assistance for Arizonans, supporting an estimated over 7,400 good-paying jobs in just the first year.

Health Care

• Without the Build Back Better Act, 158,000 Arizonans will remain without health coverage, resulting in a failure to close the Medicaid coverage gap.

• Without the Build Back Better Act, an estimated 1.35 million Arizonans will remain without guaranteed or expanded Medicare coverage of hearing benefits.

• The Build Back Better Act would also extend premium tax credits so that 107,000 Arizonans can continue to save hundreds of dollars a year on premium costs, a national average of $600.

Prescription Drugs

• The average cost of prescription drug treatments increased 26.3%, while the annual income for Arizonans only increased 15.6%, resulting in an estimated 26% of Arizonans not taking medications as prescribed due to high costs.

• The Build Back Better Act would help ensure that drug costs do not increase faster than inflation by allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices.

• 490,807 Arizonans live with diabetes; the Build Back Better Act could lower the price of insulin from $600 to $35.