News Round Up: November 5, 2018

Here are some highlights from the past week’s news and upcoming events on family tax credit issues.

Top Story: Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper (D) proposed a state budget for fiscal year 2019 that includes a $64 million expansion of the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and $24 million in tax credits intended to help working families pay for child care. (The Denver Post)

  • Delaware Governor John Carney (D) vetoed legislation that would make the state’s EITC refundable but decrease its value from 20 percent to 5.9 percent of the federal credit. The bill’s sponsor, Representative Paul Baumbach (D), has stated that he will re-introduce the bill in the next legislative session. (Delaware Public Media)
  • U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) introduced legislation, the WALL Act, which would provide funding to the Trump Administration’s proposed border wall through changes to federal safety net program requirements. His proposal includes requiring a work-authorized Social Security Number to claim the EITC and Child Tax Credit (CTC), and requiring proof of citizenship for other safety net programs such as food stamps, TANF and public housing. (Senator Inhofe)
  • Arindrajit Dube, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, proposed the “Earned and Basic Income Tax Credit,” which would restructure the EITC to allow families with no earnings to receive a proportion of the credit’s maximum benefits. (The Hill)
  • Jae-June Lee, a summer fellow for the Georgetown Center for Poverty and Inequality, and Donovan Hicks, a research associate for the Center for American Progress, recommended increasing the value of the EITC and allowing recipients to claim the credit in advance installments to aid low-income families impacted by extreme weather events. (RealClear Policy)
  • We blogged about a new report that found that the 2017 federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act exacerbated the racial wealth divide, and how strengthening tax credits like the EITC can help alleviate the tax burden on households of color. (TCWF)