Group celebrates new state law that gives big tax credit for adoptive couples

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - If money is the only deterrent for those of you looking to adopt and start a family. Louisiana will reward you with a generous tax credit.

If you ask just about any parent to describe what it’s like to raise a child, you’ll likely never hear them use the word “cheap” because it’s not. But HB443 by state Rep. Rick Edmonds and Sen. Sharon Hewitt would give couples a one-time five-thousand-dollar tax credit for those who privately adopt a child under the age of 3.

While celebrating the bill becoming law, Ben Clapper with Louisiana Right to Life says it “gives big assistance to families looking to adopt a child and we hope it encourages more families to consider adopting a child and being an adoptive couple”.

Those in Thursday’s crowd who were adopted themselves shared how it impacted their life and shaped who they are today.

“I was adopted at the age of 9 after a very painful experience, a very difficult experience with my biological family. And I know this...The permanence adoption provides children is what saves children their futures, it gives them their futures back. It saves them from addiction, relationship issues, and many problems that I saw in my biological family,” said Sarah Zagorski who was adopted and now also does work for LA Right to Life.

“We didn’t really know what to expect. And it really is about facilitating for people like us who are out there trying to do something really good, something special about building out own family,” said Jeff Director, an adoptive father who decided to adopt four children with his wife six years ago.

One mom who got pregnant when she was only 15, Kim Shultz, decided to give her little boy up for adoption to give him a life she could not provide at the time. To this day she and her son remain in contact while he lives with his loving adoptive family.

“To save my baby from the...Tragic way of life that I was living in I chose to place him up for adoption. All of these years later I have three more boys, I’m married, and we’ve actually thought about adopting a couple of times. Because I’ve always wanted to love on another birth mother the way that my birth son’s adoptive family has loved on me,” Shultz shared.

The tax credit will be available for anyone who adopts a child after January 2023.

Click here to report a typo.

Copyright 2023 WAFB. All rights reserved.