More than 37,000 hardworking Maine families will keep a key income boost that helps them go to work and pay for basic necessities under a new bipartisan agreement in Congress that saves critically important provisions of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC).
The agreement announced late Tuesday night makes permanent provisions of the EITC and CTC currently scheduled to expire in 2017. Without this agreement an estimated 64,000 children in these 37,000 Maine families will lose some or all of their working-family tax credits. And 16,000 of these children will descend into– or deeper into – poverty. More than 26,000 rural Maine families and 12,000 veteran and military families also count on EITC and CTC benefits to make ends meet.
The EITC and CTC reward work by allowing working families to keep more of what they earn to pay for essentials like school supplies for their kids or car repairs to help them get to work. While Congress has taken the first step in reaching an agreement, the legislation will need to pass both houses and be signed by President Obama before it becomes law. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on Thursday and the Senate soon after.
