According to W.Va. Center on Budget and Policy last year, 23 percent of West Virginians were working low wage jobs with a quarter of those workers living in poverty. We should be able to work full-time and afford to live, period. An Earned Income Tax Credit at the state level would be extremely helpful to those workers and to our economy.
The EITC has been proven time and time again to be the biggest tool in lifting families out of poverty. First of all, it puts money directly into the hands of low-wage workers. This money, in turn, goes right into local economies. And the thing about Earned Income Tax Credit is that the income has to be earned income, which means wages.
We are always hearing that people need to work more, but yet
we don’t push our state government to provide the necessary supports. In fact,
there has been talk already this session about providing more tax breaks for
businesses and yet incentives for work are given the axe before they can get
out of committee. As one local legislator points out, we pay more taxes on the
clothes we buy than companies do for extracting our natural resources.
Granted, the state EITC won’t pay out as much as the federal, but who doesn’t know how helpful a couple extra hundred dollars would be? It could mean a set of tires that will help a family car pass state inspection. It could be an extra month’s rent for a family facing homelessness. It could catch up utility bills. And yet West Virginia lawmakers refuse to pass it.
Working Poor
It’s easy to ignore facts and figures and continue to feed
the stereotypes of the poor, but the fact remains that most WV SNAP recipients
are working. So why are so many West Virginians living in poverty while
working? We need to start having honest conversations about this. I’ve heard
countless people speak against a minimum wage hike, but people are working and
are still not able to afford to live.
I have heard a lot of people talking about our declining
population.
Well, let’s make West Virginia a place where people can afford to live. I want to see government assistance become a hand up rather than a hand out, and I know that many others do as well, so when are we going to start putting pressure on our state government to make West Virginia a place where people can get ahead and not have to struggle so much?
West Virginians shouldn’t have to work so hard to be so poor, and we need to use our voices to speak out against it.
The only way for the government to not have to provide so much assistance is to be a government that provides the opportunities that don’t require so much assistance. Let the lawmakers in Charleston know that you support a state EITC, the Working Families Tax Act, and let’s get this passed.
