Restore NC's Earned Income Tax Credit
A union card is the best anti-poverty tool around, but as for anti-poverty government programs, next to Social Security, the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is just about the best thing going.
Progressives love the EITC because it reduces poverty and makes the tax system fairer. Conservatives have liked it because it encourages and rewards work. (You have to work to claim the credit.)
In addition to the federal EITC, hard-working but low-income North Carolina families for years could claim a state EITC to help offset the higher share, relative to their income, of state and local taxes that they pay. These taxpayers - about 900,000 of them - could use the money to make ends meet, spending it on goods and services and boosting the state and local economy in the process.
Too bad for everyone that state lawmakers and Gov. McCrory repealed the state EITC last year. (Worse is that they did it to pay for tax cuts for millionaires.)
Sign this petition!
Alexandra Sirota, Director of the NC Budget & Tax Center, created a MoveOn.org petition, urging North Carolina to reverse course and restore the state EITC:
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Send a personal message to your own state lawmakers.
Photo credit Community Action Partnership of Riverside County.