in our Spotlight on Business Report a new bill is aimed at helping families with high costs and an unsteady economy Democratic assemblywoman verlina Reynolds Jackson today introduced legislation that would expand New Jersey's child tax credit so parents would be able to claim dependent children up to the age of six instead of the current policy which includes kids five and younger and be eligible for double the maximum credit amount from five hundred dollars to a thousand the annual income requirements for families applying would remain the same at up to eighty thousand dollars a year but Reynolds Jackson's proposal includes other credits to include kids between the ages of 6 and 11 a move she says could combat the rising prices of groceries housing clothing just about everything right now the legislation is similar to a proposal from left-leaning New Jersey policy perspective which finds more than 440 thousand families around the state would benefit from an expanded tax credit