News Round-up: January 23, 2017
Here are some highlights from the past week’s news and upcoming events on family tax credit issues.
- What would it take for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to be even more effective at reducing poverty? Wharton business economics and public policy professor Benjamin Lockwood argued that since the EITC’s benefits are mostly concentrated among parents, expanding the credit to workers not raising children would bring the poverty rate even lower and lessen income inequality (Wharton).
- It’s the first week of Donald Trump’s presidency, but it’s still unclear what part the administration will play in Congressional tax reform (Forbes).
- Lawmakers in the Illinois House and Senate as well as Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) continued to debate state budget legislation. Speaker of the House Mike Madigan (D) last week announced his budget plan, which included a measure to increase the state’s EITC (Chicago Tribune, Crain’s Chicago Business).
- Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) encouraged members of the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees to eliminate what they call the “parent penalty” in any federal tax reform bill. Rubio and Lee have advocated for parents to receive an additional $2,500 tax credit per child (Florida Politics).
- A bill in Arkansas that would create a state EITC advanced in the state House (Arkansas Matters).
- Lawmakers in Massachusetts introduced bills to increase the state’s EITC (WWLP).