Working families need tax relief

Will White is director of the Hawaiʻi Budget & Policy Center, a program of the nonprofit Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice. He said on Friday that he is encouraged at these bills’ progress.

In particular, White said, he was pleasantly surprised when the Senate Committee on Ways and Means doubled the amount of the EITC from 20 percent of the federal earned-income credit to 40 percent. The initial proposal by Gov. Josh Green would have boosted the EITC, too, but to 30 percent.

“If we were to secure a 40 percent tax credit, Hawaiʻi would have one of the strongest EITC provisions in the nation,” he said, behind only California, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

The Senate also increased the income thresholds and amounts of the refundable general excise tax credit for food expenses, White said. This also will help poorer residents, for whom food costs amount to a large share of their household budgets.