Expanding the Earned Income Credit
This tax season, Oregon will require a minimum wage worker
who was employed full-time, year-round last year and supported
one child to pay about $321 in state income taxes. That's
equivalent to about a month of food for this hard-working but
financially insecure family.
Oregon's Earned Income Credit, enacted in 1997, has certainly
helped Oregon's most vulnerable families. Because the credit is
so small, though (it's one of the nation's smallest among states
with such credits) Oregon income taxes are still taking a
month's worth of food off the table of vulnerable families.
By expanding the Earned Income Credit (EIC), Oregon can give
a hand up to low-wage working families, rather than leaving them
behind.
Read OCPP's fact sheet,
Expanding the EIC in 2009, which includes tables and maps
showing EIC returns as a share of all returns by state
legislative district.
A Tax System that Matches Oregon Values
Speaking of that minimum wage worker paying $321 in state
income taxes, her family's tax bill is especially high compared
to the income tax bill that Intel Corporation, with $9 billion
in profits, likely paid last year: 10 bucks.
Intel hasn't always paid a pittance in state income taxes. In
1997, the company paid over $50 million in income taxes to
Oregon. The company boasted at the time that it was the state's
best corporate income taxpayer.
What would it cost to eliminate the income tax on the minimum
wage family? A little less than $50 million a year, or roughly
the amount that Intel proudly paid in state income taxes a
decade ago.
Read the rest of OCPP's
CenterPoints column,
A Tax System that Matches Oregon Values.
