Representatives Mike Skindell, and Erica Crawley, today introduced the Working Families First act which would remove limitations on Ohio’s earned income tax credit.
Ohio currently has a state earned-income tax credit, created in 2013 and expanded in 2014. But the credit is capped, and unlike the federal EITC, is nonrefundable. The result, Skindell says, is “one of the weakest earned income tax credits in the nation.”
As the DeWine administration is seeking a gas-tax increase which would fall hardest on low-income Ohioans, House Democrats are promoting Skindell and Crawley’s EITC changes to help hundreds of thousands of working people.
“We have the opportunity to lessen the financial burden on our vulnerable working families, especially our single-parent households,” Rep. Crawley said.
Kalitha Williams, project director for Policy Matters, said half a million Ohio children live in households below the poverty line, and the earned income tax credit “is the nation’s most effective anti-poverty program.”
Skindell says that Ohio can afford to expand the credit, considering the state government routinely has a budget surplus.
“The Working Families First tax incentive works to lift families up to give them a real shot at getting ahead and saving for the future,” says Skindell.
Read more at dispatch.com