News Round-up: March 13, 2017
Here are some highlights from the past week’s news and upcoming events on family tax credit issues.
- A bill to create a Montana Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) cleared a major legislative hurdle and was voted out of the House Committee on Taxation. The bill, HB 391, now proceeds to a full House vote. Meanwhile, a companion bill continues to make its way through Senate committees.
- New research from UCLA’s David Neumark and Katherine E. Williams shows that states with their own Earned Income Tax Credits (EITCs) experience increased participation in the federal EITC. That means that working families living in one of the 26 states with an EITC are more likely to benefit from the federal program (California Budget and Policy Center).
- South Carolina State Sen. Marlon Kimpson (D) wrote an op-ed pledging his support for bills that would create a state EITC worth 3 percent of the federal credit (The State).
- In Georgia, advocates and lawmakers continued to debate a controversial tax package that would create a state EITC but also levy a flat income tax. Such a tax would disproportionately affect low-income workers in the state (Georgia Budget and Policy Institute).
- One in five eligible workers overlooks the EITC, and working millennials are among the most likely to miss out on the credit they have earned (The Street).
- The New York Times’ Claire Cain Miller wrote about how lower-wage workers can get the skills they need to thrive in a 21st century economy. One of her suggestions was to bolster the safety net, which includes expanding the EITC (New York Times).