Weekly News Round-up: April 11, 2016
Here are some highlights from the past week’s news and upcoming events 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 or state.
- As states like California and New York raise their minimum wages to $15 per hour, some pundits argue that the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a better strategy for reducing poverty and incentivizing work. But Eric Reed at The Dallas Morning News wrote, and many experts agree, that the two policies are complementary and that the economy is better off when states increase both together (Dallas Morning News).
- The Maryland legislature must act by this evening to pass bills to increase the state’s EITC for childless workers. The Senate’s version of the bill contains a controversial tax cut for the highest-income earners (Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, Reading Eagle).
- Public policy researcher Michael Purzycki weighed the affordability of different plans to expand the federal EITC for childless workers (Washington Monthly).
- The Des Moines Register Editorial Board wrote that if Congress approves President Obama’s plan to expand the EITC for childless workers, 122,000 Iowans would benefit. Speaker Paul Ryan has introduced a similar measure (Des Moines Register).
- Eugene Steuerle, an Institute Fellow at the Tax Policy Center, wrote that Obama and Ryan’s plans to increase the EITC to childless workers may discourage low-income workers from getting married (Tax Policy Center).
- As the number of children born to unmarried parents continues to increase, many non-traditional families are struggling to navigate the complex tax code (TCWF, NPR).