News Round-up: May 22, 2017
Here are some highlights from the past week’s news and upcoming events on family tax credit issues.
- President Trump’s budget proposal, which is set to be announced Tuesday, would reportedly cut spending on the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit by $40 million. These tax credits, which have broad bipartisan support, help millions of families climb out of poverty each year. The budget would also reduce spending for other vital anti-poverty programs including $800 million from Medicaid and $193 million from the food stamp budget (Bloomberg).
- California Assemblyman Philip Ting and CalEITC4Me founder Joseph Sanberg encouraged state lawmakers to expand the state’s EITC (San Francisco Chronicle).
- Shoe retailer Foot Locker, Inc. reported decreased profits for early 2017 and blamed the decline in sales on the EITC refund delay. Many families received their refunds later this year because of the PATH Act, which requires the IRS to hold the refunds of taxpayers receiving the EITC until February 15 (MarketWatch).
- April Ponnuru, a senior advisor at the Conservative Reform Network, wrote that the Trump administration could improve the lives of families living in the Rust Belt by expanding the federal EITC (Washington Examiner).