{"id":20561,"date":"2017-02-01T17:42:23","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T23:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=20561"},"modified":"2017-02-01T17:42:23","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T23:42:23","slug":"state-earned-income-tax-credit-increase-sought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=20561","title":{"rendered":"State earned income tax credit increase sought"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Revenue Committee heard testimony Feb. 1 on two bills that would increase the amount of a nonrefundable income tax credit for working people with low to moderate incomes.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB69, introduced by Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, would increase Nebraska\u2019s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) from 10 percent of the federal credit to 13 percent in 2019, to 17 percent in 2020 and to 20 percent in 2021.<\/p>\n

Pansing Brooks cited a report released last year by the Legislature\u2019s Intergenerational Poverty Task Force, which found that 18.1 percent of Nebraska families with children under 5 were in poverty. She said the report identified increasing the EITC as one of the most effective ways to lift working families out of poverty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncreases in the EITC provide a mechanism to battle poverty while rewarding hard work and families with children \u2014 and providing dollars directly back into our economy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

LB129, introduced by Lincoln Sen. Adam Morfeld, would increase Nebraska\u2019s EITC from 10 percent of the federal credit to 11 percent in 2018 and to 12 percent in 2019.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Adam Morfeld<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Morfeld said the incremental changes would bring Nebraska in line with some neighboring states: Iowa\u2019s EITC is 15 percent of the federal credit and Kansas\u2019 is 17 percent. He said the EITC is an effective anti-poverty tool that encourages low-income people to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany low-income jobs fail to provide sufficient income on which to live,\u201d Morfeld said. \u201cRefundable, earned income tax credits provide low-income workers with a needed income boost that can help them meet their basic needs and pay for the things that allow them to work, like transportation and child care.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Piester, a volunteer for the Center for People in Need, testified in support of the bill. He said the majority of the center\u2019s clients live on about $1,250 a month and often must work more than one job to make ends meet. He said increasing the credit would help more of Nebraska\u2019s low-income families work their way out of poverty.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllowing them to keep more of their earnings will go a long way in keeping them afloat financially,\u201d he said, \u201cpotentially raising their standard of living and forestalling bankruptcies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaitlin Reece, policy coordinator for Voices for Children, said that many low-income families use the EITC to help pay for child care, car repair, rent and groceries. Between 2009 and 2011, she said, Nebraska\u2019s EITC kept nearly 20,000 children out of poverty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe investments we make in working families through the EITC put children on a solid path to a prosperous future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

No one testified in opposition to the bill and the committee took no immediate action on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Revenue Committee heard testimony Feb. 1 on two bills that would increase the amount of a nonrefundable income tax credit for working people with low to moderate incomes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[146],"class_list":["post-20561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-revenue","tag-sen-patty-pansing-brooks"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/LB69-129PansingBrooks2-1-17a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20561"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20568,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20561\/revisions\/20568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}