Weekly News Round-up: August 3, 2015

Here are some highlights from the past week’s news on family tax credit issues. Remember – you also can track news coverage throughout the week by visiting our website, where you can filter news by a specific credit and/or state.

  • Professors Kathryn Edin, Sarah Halpern-Meekin and Sara Greene partnered with the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) to encourage Congress to consider a “Rainy Day EITC.”  Under their proposal,recipients could opt to only receive a portion of their credit at tax time and receive the rest, plus a 50 percent savings match, six months later (The Hill).
  • Following the release of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual KIDS COUNT Report, we wrote on the importance of tax credits like the EITC to children across the country (TCWF).
  • The Huntington Herald Dispatch editorial board called for the West Virginia legislature to create a state EITC to help low-income workers (Huntington Herald Dispatch).
  • The United Way in Louisiana pushed gubernatorial candidates to debate anti-poverty policy, including increasing the EITC (Times-Picayune).
  • After states including CaliforniaMassachusetts and New Jersey created or strengthened their EITCs this legislative session, researchers at the Brookings Institution and Pew Charitable Trusts looked at the reasons behind the growing trend (Brookings InstitutionPew Charitable Trusts).
  • White House economic adviser Jason Furman hinted that when Congress debates tax reform this fall, the administration will prioritize renewing expiring provisions of the EITC and the Child Tax Credit (Washington Examiner).
  • Professor Noah Smith of Stony Brook University wrote the EITC is the best way to help Americans living in poverty (Bloomberg ViewNews Tribune).