News Round Up: July 28, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting low-income communities and exacerbating economic inequality across the country. Throughout this crisis, TCWF will compile news, legislation, and research on how tax credits and other income-boosting policies can provide much-needed relief for the hardest-hit communities:
Top Story: A report from Boston Indicators, in partnership with the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center and the Economic Security Project, details a package of reforms to the Massachusetts Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) that would help it function more like a minimum guaranteed income. (Boston Indicators)
- Emerging data in a new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) explains why relief measures targeting struggling households can most effectively help the tens of millions of people who are out of work and struggling to afford adequate food and pay rent. (CBPP)
- A coalition of community groups released a Justice Budget platform advocating for dramatic changes to the FY 2021 Rhode Island budget that would expand the state’s EIITC alongside other policy prescriptions on housing, economic justice, and criminal justice that address the systemic inequalities exposed by the COVID crisis, as well as the national uprising against police violence. (Uprise RI)
- LIFT — a human service agency that uses a goal-oriented, holistic approach to partner with members to increase their income and wealth over the long term — shared stories from its members to illustrate how the COVID crisis is disproportionately affecting Black and Latina mothers. (CBPP)
- Researchers at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) urged federal policymakers to temporarily expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and EITC to help avert a poverty spike. (CBPP)
- Next Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the Child Care for Economic Recovery Act, which would make the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit refundable among other measures aimed at providing tax relief to lower-income families. The National Women’s Law Center is urging people to contact their representatives to encourage them to support an increase in child care funding as part of any COVID-19 relief package. (NWLC)
- Researchers at the Tax Policy Center (TPC) show how fiscal costs could be reduced and benefits better targeted to intended groups by altering key parameters in Congressional proposals to expand the EITC and CTC. (TPC)