News Intro Text
[Nola.com, December 4, 2015]
Date
News Item Content
<p>by The Editorial Board, Nola.com/Times-Picayune</p>
<p>he effort to give thousands of Louisiana workers a little extra in their tax refund failed at the end of the legislative session last summer. But New Orleans Rep. Walt Leger and business and community groups pushing for an increase in the state's earned income tax credit for low-income workers will have an important ally in 2016.</p>
<p>Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards said this week that he wants to double the state's earned income tax credit as part of his legislative agenda. That is what Rep. Leger tried to do this year. He kept the measure alive until the final day of the session, when it died.</p>
<p>Louisiana's earned income tax credit is 3.5 percent of the federal tax credit, which makes it the lowest among 26 states that offer one. Rep. Leger proposed that the Legislature increase the Louisiana credit to 7 percent.</p>
<p>He had an impressive group of allies: Entergy, the United Way of Southeast Louisiana, the Louisiana Association of United Ways, the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Jesuit Social Research Institute at Loyola University and AARP Louisiana, among others.</p>
<p>Entergy has seen the benefits of the extra money for individual families. The company helps its low-income customers file for the annual tax credit, which is paid as a refund.</p>
<p>But the Legislature balked at increasing the credit.</p>
<p>That is a shame. More than 224,000 families in Louisiana have difficulty paying for essentials because of low wages, high housing costs, expensive health care and difficulty finding child care, according to a study released last January by the<span class="maroon"><strong> Jesuit Social Research Institute</strong></span> in Loyola University's College of Social Sciences in New Orleans.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/12/louisiana_income_tax_credit.html#incart_m-rpt-1">MORE>></a></p>
<p>he effort to give thousands of Louisiana workers a little extra in their tax refund failed at the end of the legislative session last summer. But New Orleans Rep. Walt Leger and business and community groups pushing for an increase in the state's earned income tax credit for low-income workers will have an important ally in 2016.</p>
<p>Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards said this week that he wants to double the state's earned income tax credit as part of his legislative agenda. That is what Rep. Leger tried to do this year. He kept the measure alive until the final day of the session, when it died.</p>
<p>Louisiana's earned income tax credit is 3.5 percent of the federal tax credit, which makes it the lowest among 26 states that offer one. Rep. Leger proposed that the Legislature increase the Louisiana credit to 7 percent.</p>
<p>He had an impressive group of allies: Entergy, the United Way of Southeast Louisiana, the Louisiana Association of United Ways, the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Jesuit Social Research Institute at Loyola University and AARP Louisiana, among others.</p>
<p>Entergy has seen the benefits of the extra money for individual families. The company helps its low-income customers file for the annual tax credit, which is paid as a refund.</p>
<p>But the Legislature balked at increasing the credit.</p>
<p>That is a shame. More than 224,000 families in Louisiana have difficulty paying for essentials because of low wages, high housing costs, expensive health care and difficulty finding child care, according to a study released last January by the<span class="maroon"><strong> Jesuit Social Research Institute</strong></span> in Loyola University's College of Social Sciences in New Orleans.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/12/louisiana_income_tax_credit.html#incart_m-rpt-1">MORE>></a></p>