New Jersey and Vermont Expand EITC

By Lauren Pescatore

New Jersey and Vermont have both enacted state budgets for Fiscal Year 2019 that include expanding their state-level Earned Income Tax Credits (EITCs) for lower-wage workers.

Vermont’s EITC will immediately increase from 32 to 36 percent of the federal credit, while New Jersey’s EITC will slowly increase from 35 to 40 percent of the federal credit by 2020. New Jersey’s budget also includes the creation of a new state-level Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for households with income below $60,000.

In both states, the need to reduce the financial burden on low-wage working families seemed to be an area of agreement among lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

“By boosting the Earned Income Tax Credit, the tax deduction for homestead property taxes, and tax credits for child and dependent care, we will alleviate some of the financial burdens shouldered by middle class and low-income residents of one of the costliest states in the nation,” said New Jersey Assemblyman Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson).

“For the first time in decades, state government is helping Vermonters keep more of what they earn,” Vermont Governor Phil Scott (R) acknowledged in his official statement on the budget, which he allowed to become law after battling with legislative leaders over an increase to non-residential property tax rates.

The two states join California, Louisiana and Maryland in improving the EITC this legislative session, making it a banner year for the credit at the state level.

To learn more about New Jersey and Vermont’s EITC, as well as other state-level EITCs across the country, visit our 50-state map here.