Right after the wrap-up of the Our Children Our Future Policy Summit, join us in the Governor’s Conference Room (inside the Secretary of State’s office) on September 15 at 12:30 PM for the release of the report, “Tax Reform That Protects Roads, Children and Seniors.”
A diverse coalition of organizations that cares about kids, families, seniors and working people, community organizations and local governments will come together to support basic principles of fair taxation for legislators to consider as they deliberate changes to the tax code.
The federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) help thousands of working West Virginia families make ends meet. But unless Congress acts, 131,000 children in 81,000 families in West Virginia could lose an important piece of their family budgets when critical provisions of the EITC and CTC expire.
To put the numbers in perspective, a single mother with two children in Huntington who works full time at $8.75/hour, earning just $17,500/year, would lose $1,565 of her $2,000 CTC.
Read more in this oped written by Jennifer Thacker with the West Virginia Alliance for Sustainable Families and Ed Davis, with the United Way of the River Cities.
The Our Children Our Future Policy Summit is an annual gathering of those working to end child poverty in West Virginia. For further inspiration, read this brief but powerful essay, “Our Perceptions About the Unworthy Poor Haven’t Changed.”
It concludes with this: “Only when we change a system that traps so many Americans in a struggle to meet their basic needs will we create an economy defined by opportunity and the chance for anyone to thrive.”
There was more national attention on the decline of the region’s coal industry this week. This Bloomberg article touches upon how Appalachian communities are passing resolutions of support for President Obama’s Power Plus Plan. It also quotes WVCBP Executive Director Ted Boettner on how funding the West Virginia Future Fund will provide resources for communities once the jobs are gone.
For perspective on why West Virginia should embrace the Power Plus Plan, check out this oped by former State Senator Dan Foster in this week’s Charleston Gazette-Mail.
