News Round Up: September 21, 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: Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation to expand access to the state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to all filers using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs). (TCWF)
- Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden released an anti-poverty plan to tackle the COVID-19 recession that would temporarily increase the Child Tax Credit (CTC) from $2,000 to $3,000 per child and $3,600 per child under age six, make the credit fully refundable for families with the lowest incomes, and allow recipients to receive the credit monthly. (Joe Biden)
- The Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure found that the EITC and CTC lifted 7.5 million people out of poverty in 2019 and explored the effect of other government programs on low-income Americans. (Census Bureau)
- The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP)’s new report analyzed the 2019 Census data on income, poverty, and health insurance in the U.S. and how the economy has changed since the data was collected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (CBPP)
- A new brief from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) recommended ways federal and state tax codes can be leveraged to advance social justice such as expanding refundable tax credits for working Americans. (ITEP)
- Aidan Davis, senior state policy analyst at ITEP, shared why anti-poverty programs like the EITC and CTC are critical to working Americans and steps federal and state lawmakers can take to improve them. (ITEP)
- Tonya Adair, chief impact officer at United Way for Southeastern Michigan, urged Congress to pass another COVID-19 relief package that includes expansions of the federal EITC and CTC to help Michigan families that have been hit hard by the pandemic. (The Detroit News)
- Vineeta Kapahi, policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective, urged state lawmakers to expand eligibility for the state EITC to ITIN filers, a move that would benefit an additional 54,000 New Jersey households. (NJ Spotlight News)
- New York Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy (D-Albany) urged her colleagues to pass Assembly Bill 10775, which would increase the state’s EITC from 30 to 40 percent of the federal credit, expand access to workers without dependent children under the age of 25 and ITIN filers, and allow quarterly payments. (Times Union)
- We blogged about the University of Texas at Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs’ Prenatal-to-3 Impact Center’s new policy roadmap that highlights the EITC as an effective state-level policy for supporting the healthy development of infants and toddlers. (TCWF)