The State Journal – While leaders in the West Virginia Senate and House of Delegates ponder what to do with a $270 million hole in the state budget, a coalition of family service organizations, religious leaders, business owners and at least two lawmakers are urging the adoption of a state Earned Income Tax Credit to help the state’s lowest-paid workers and hopefully help jump-start the state’s foundering economy. Read
“I think we can all agree that we need to get people back to work,” said Delegate Matthew Rohrbach, R-Cabell, at a press conference called by the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy to push for legislation adopting a state tax credit.
Seth DiStefano, in charge of the statewide push, said an earned income tax credit, modeled on the federal tax credit system, would help West Virginia’s low-paid workers, encourage people to go to work or stay in the workforce, and help the state economy at the same time. DiStefano said a proposed tax credit of about 15 percent of the federal credit would cost the state about $47 million in revenue, but said that money would go directly back into the state’s economy because people who get the tax credit will go out and spend the money.
