News Round-up: January 30, 2017
Here are some highlights from the past week’s news and upcoming events on family tax credit issues.
- Advocates, policymakers, taxpayers and others took part in Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Awareness Day on Friday, January 27, celebrating the EITC’s vital role in helping lower-income families make ends meet. This Thursday, February 2, TCWF and the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) will host a Capitol Hill policy briefing on reducing wealth inequality and protecting consumers at tax time and beyond through tax credits like the EITC. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) will give keynote remarks, followed by two panel discussions among experts in the field. RSVP for the briefing here.
- Oklahoma Representative George E. Young (D) introduced a bill to make the state’s EITC refundable. State lawmakers stripped the credit of refundability at the end of the 2016 session (KFOR-TV).
- A bill to create a state-level EITC was rejected by Arkansas House Republicans (Arkansas Online, Arkansas Times, Arkansas Matters).
- The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) released a report detailing how programs like the EITC and Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) could be reformed to be even more effective at reducing poverty (AEI).
- A Washington Post op-ed argued that expanding the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and other benefits for parents raising children could help lower the abortion rate (Washington Post).