Update: after trying in vain to figure out what was going on, i contacted turbotax support. We ran through all the options, confirming the 3100 increase in credit, but unable to see what was causing it. The suggested solution was to proceed toward filing what we believed to be wrong, Nd at the very last review, my taxes went back up by $1100. I was a little irked that in making that correction it did not even acknowledge finding an error. It just said everything looks good! Anyway, if you see something that truly doesnt look right, just proceed to file it and turbotax may fix its error.
thanks @SweetieJean for your reply. Best of luck to anyone else that sees this problem.
