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Fr. Kammer spoke in support of Louisiana HB 70 on Tuesday. Committee members voted 8-6 to advance the bill to the full House.
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<p>By SUE LINCOLN, 89.9 WWNO</p>
<p>A bill to increase a tax credit program by $47-million dollars found favor with the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday. Speaker Pro Tem Walt Leger&rsquo;s HB 70 would double Louisiana&rsquo;s current Earned Income Tax Credit.</p>
<p>&ldquo;This allows about 30-percent of the state of Louisiana to keep more of their earned money,&rdquo; Leger told the committee.</p>
<p>There were the kind of arguments for the bill that you&rsquo;d expect.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I see this bill as a response to consistent criticism that I hear &ndash; in this building and in the community at large &ndash; about people &lsquo;getting something for nothing&rsquo;,&rdquo; Leger explained. &ldquo;This program is one that rewards people for working.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Father Fred Kammer, with Loyola&rsquo;s Social Research Institute, said increasing Louisiana&rsquo;s credit from 3 &frac12; percent to 7 percent of the federal EITC would be a raise for Louisiana&rsquo;s working poor.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The dollar value to each family of the federal share was $2685,&rdquo; Kammer said of the most recent tax year. &ldquo;The state value was $94.&rdquo;</p>
<p>There were objections, like this from Kenner Rep. Julie Stokes, who said she wasn&rsquo;t comfortable with the timing.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to be back in this building &ndash; probably in early 2016 &ndash; for a special session that will focus on tax reform,&rdquo; Stokes said, urging a delay in acting on this bill. &ldquo;I think that would probably be better timing.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I share your concerns with the timing,&rdquo; Leger responded. &ldquo;However, given the nature of our situation and the need for offsets, I thought it was an appropriate thing to bring at this time.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Offsets&rdquo; ended up being the key argument. This bill could help offset the House-approved tax increases, thus assisting with keeping the budget within the governor&rsquo;s &ldquo;no net tax increase&rdquo; guidelines.</p>
<p>&ldquo;If we&rsquo;re going to ultimately balance the budget &ndash; without vetoes &ndash; we need to just be cognizant that, at this point in the session, providing the Senate with some options on offsets is, I think, a valuable tool,&rdquo; Leger explained.</p>
<p>Committee members, several crossing party lines, voted 8-6 to advance the bill to the full House.</p>
<p><a href="http://wwno.org/post/offsets-are-latest-budget-balancing-tool">MORE&gt;&gt;</a></p>