DeLauro & DC Crew Bring Home The Bacon

New Haven’s federal delegation came home Friday with big smiles — and big pots of money for local families and businesses.

At two separate events in town, at the YMCA and the Shubert theater, the federal officials joined local movers and shakers to celebrat two pieces of the American Rescue Plan, a landmark $91 million Covid-relief stimulus that Congress passed in March.

One is an expansion of the child tax credit, the result of an 18-year campaign led by New Haven U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro. Families are receiving their first checks under the expansion, which promises to slash the number of children living in poverty by more than half.

Meanwhile, the Shuttered Venues Operators Grant program, geared towards performing arts spaces that have been closed since the early stages of the pandemic, will provide relief to venues across town as they gear up for a returned fall season.

A Child’s ​“Miracle”

Last Friday, New Haven families, along with millions of others across the nation, received their first monthly check from the federal government in the amount of $300 for children under 6 and $250 for those ages 6 to 17. The money came with no strings attached, and went to nearly everyone, including families in the lowest tax brackets. Experts expect the historic, once-in-a-generation benefit to lift 55 percent of children, or 27 million families, out of poverty.

That was the news Congresswoman DeLauro celebrated inside the New Haven YMCA on Friday.

She then urged eligible families who have not claimed the credit — there are 25,000 in Connecticut — to do so as soon as possible.

“It is imperative that youngsters and their families receive this money,” DeLauro said. ​“This is the cost of food, the cost of diapers, healthcare, for middle class families, lower class families, and working class families. There is still time!”

On Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., the Internal Revenue Service will hold an event at the Taxpayer Assistance Center at 150 Court S. to help families apply for the credit. Those who apply in the weeks to come will be able to receive payments for both July and August, she said.

Connecticut’s two U.S. senators, Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, joined her at the podium at the YMCA. They stressed the importance of making the credi permanent, an effort Blumenthal tied to broader talks in D.C. on an infrastructure bill.

“We cannot afford to do the roads and bridges and leave out our kids, or not take care of the human being,” Blumenthal said. ​“The infrastructure program will be incomplete, and it won’t be approvable, without a permanent child tax credit on it. If we walk away from these children, we will be a lesser nation.”

President Biden has voiced support for the permanence, he added.

Mercedes Robinson, a single mother of children ages 8, 4, and 1, applauded DeLauro at the event. After going back to school to study psychology last August, Robinson said during remarks to the press, she is just five classes away from graduating. The tax credit will help her finish her degree.

“The child tax credit can help me alleviate some of the financial burden and allow me to focus on school and providing for my children,” she said.

Both senatorsheaped praise upon DeLauro’s long-term advocacy. She first introduced the legislation in 2003, then in the next ten consecutive Congressional sessions.

Murphy spoke of the wider economic impact of having more disposable income in the city, describing the credit as a ​“miracle.”

“This money is the difference for families living in poverty and being able to pay their bills,” Murphy said. ​“It also gets spent right here in New Haven. If not for Rosa DeLauro, this would not have happened.”

Throughout the speeches, the Congresswoman’s eyes were glued to two small children present, whom she immediately went to greet after the conference. The money, she said during her speech, could help not only make ends meet but enrich the childhoods of Connecticut’s children.

“Let’s give them swim lessons!” she shouted.

SVOG: ​“The Lights Are On Today!”

The Congresswoman and senior senator regrouped following the first event just a few blocks away on the stage of the Shubert Theatre on College Street. There, they touted the Shuttered Venues Operators Grant (SVOG), which will funnel $90 million to Connecticut performance venues, including $3.96 million to those in New Haven.

“These theaters are our cultural heritage that we lose at our peril, and thankfully they’re going on strong this fall,” said Blumenthal.

Among the speakers was Anthony McDonald, executive director of the Shubert Theatre, which will receive funding alongside the Long Wharf Theater, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Square Foot Theatre and Tavern, Café 9, and other venues.

Cultural wealth generates economic wealth, McDonald said, bringing audiences to support nearby businesses as well as the venues’ employees.

“Supporting the arts in the country, and more importantly in Connecticut, will help get the economy back on its feet,” McDonald said. ​“When we are open, downtowns benefit.”

Café 9 owner Paul Mayer echoed that sentiment, calling the grant ​“a new lease on life” for his venue after the pandemic almost forced him to close permanently to avoid financial ruin.

Catherine Marx, who directs the Small Business Administration’s Connecticut District, said that some SVOG funding remains to be doled out and encouraged eligible businesses to apply.

The Shubert, which has operated in New Haven since 1913 (with some years of hiatus), holds deep memories for long-time New Haveners. Mayor Justin Elicker showed up on Friday, recalling a turn on stage singing Justin Bieber lyrics while strumming a guitar. The venue’s upcoming season includes musicals like Anastasi and Hairspray.

DeLauro performed at numerous dance recitals at the Shubert as a youngster, and gave a brief tap performance on Friday in her red heels to admiring onlookers. She helped revive the theater while working under then-Mayor Frank Logue in the 1970s and holds her election night events on its stage.

Declaring ​“the lights are on today!”, she quoted author Jhumpa Lahiri:

“The power of art is the power to wake us up, strike us to our depths, change us. What are we searching for when we read a novel, see a film, listen to a piece of music? We are searching, through a work of art, for something that alters us, that we weren’t aware of before.”

Thomas Quagliano, a stagehand at the Shubert, spoke of the hope he and other members of the stagehand union Local 74 have, and the enduring strength of his theatre, which has held contracts with the union for over a century.

“This offers us a light at the end of a very long tunnel,” he said.