News Round-up: April 3, 2017
Here are some highlights from the past week’s news and upcoming events on family tax credit issues.
- Lawmakers in Georgia failed to pass HB329, a bill that would have instituted a flat income tax and created a state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Advocates were wary of some of the bill’s provisions that would have raised taxes on the lowest-income earners while substantially reducing the tax burden for those at the top. The bill could be revived during the 2018 legislative session (Tax Justice Blog, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, GBPI, Dalton Daily Citizen).
- In Montana, advocates called on the state Senate to pass a bill creating an EITC. The bill, HB 391, was approved by the House and is now making its way through the Senate committee process (Fairfield Sun-Times, Helena Independent Record, Billings Gazette).
- The Connecticut Black and Puerto Rican Caucuses called on the state legislature to protect tax credits for workers and families. Gov. Dan Malloy (D) has proposed reducing the state’s EITC from 27.5 to 25 percent of the federal credit (Connecticut Mirror).
- West Virginia lawmakers are working to pass a bill that creates a state EITC before the legislative session ends next week (The Journal).
- The Trump administration and U.S. House of Representatives are shifting their focus from reforming the healthcare system to rewriting the tax code. President Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan disagree on how the tax code should treat low- and middle-income workers (Washington Post).
- Vox created an interactive graphic that calculates how much a family would save under Ivanka Trump’s child care plan. Many low- and middle-income workers would not benefit from the proposed tax policies (Vox).