Source: Las Vegas Sun
By Bob Morgan
April 2, 2017
At United Way of Southern Nevada, we fight for hard-working women and men who, despite their best efforts, can barely make ends meet. Many find it nearly impossible to cover essentials such as food, transportation to and from work, and utility bills.
One effective way we help struggling workers in our community is by connecting them with the federal Earned Income Tax Credit. It’s one of our most effective tools to keep people working and help them get a fair shot at a decent life. Through the leadership of the Nevada Free Taxes Coalition and their partners, 22,650 individuals and families earned the EITC through Volunteer Income Tax Assistance programs last year in Nevada, resulting in $25 million coming back to our community. The EITC is one of the most effective, bipartisan poverty mitigation programs in U.S. history.
Today, we’re concerned about the number of working Americans for whom the EITC is unavailable. Right now, the EITC largely or entirely shuts out millions of who are not raising children. For example, noncustodial parents — those who do not have physical and/or legal custody of their child by court order — receive very little from the credit. In addition, young childless workers ages 21-24 — many of whom are struggling to get a foothold in the workforce — are completely ineligible for the EITC.
Because these workers are largely excluded from the EITC, they are the only group in our country that is taxed into poverty — or deeper into it. This situation makes it even harder for workers to pay their bills and build the financial stability they need to succeed in the future.
Our nation’s leaders can solve this problem. Bipartisan proposals are pending in Congress to improve the EITC for workers not raising children by lowering the eligibility age to 21 and increasing the maximum credit amount.
Expanding the EITC to include workers not raising children would give 107,000 working people in Nevada the financial stability to cover the basics, and build a better future for themselves and their loved ones, and contribute more to our local economy. Studies show that the EITC helps working people buy necessities like food and gas from local businesses, which in turn helps our local economy grow.
A stronger EITC would reward the Nevadans who do essential, low-wage jobs in every business in our community to keep our stat running.
So, as Sens. Dean Heller and Catherine Cortez Masteo and Reps. Dina Titus, Jacky Rosen and Ruben Kihuen look for ways to help Americans in the next year, United Way of Southern Nevada encourages them to help improve our local economy by supporting the expansion of the EITC for workers not raising children. Workers in Nevada and across the country are counting on them.
Bob Morgan is president and CEO of United Way of Southern Nevada.