Committee on Finance City Council Meeting December 18, 2019
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The City of Chicago is committed to reducing poverty and increasing the middle class in our great City by raising wages, boosting family income, and adopting progressive revenue-collection strategies; and
WHEREAS, The Earned Income Tax Credit ("EITC"), enacted by the federal government in 1975, is one of the most effective anti-poverty programs in the United States; and
WHEREAS, The EITC boosts the income of working families earning low wages by offsetting their income and payroll taxes, thereby incentivizing workforce participation. It enables low- and moderate-income families to keep more of what they earn, and to supplement the loss of wages that can result from a reduction in hours or from layoffs. Illinois's EITC builds on the success of the federal EITC by reducing state income taxes, thereby helping families pay their state and local sales and property taxes, which hit lower-income working families the hardest; and
WHEREAS, In our great City, no family with children and one full-time minimum wage worker should live in poverty. The EITC reflects an understanding that a majority of poor families are poor despite work, and that working families with incomes below or just above the federal poverty line need help to make ends meet and to make work pay; and
WHEREAS, The EITC rewards work. Research indicates that EITC-eligible families use their tax savings to pay for necessities, make home repairs, maintain vehicles that are needed to commute to work, and, in some cases, to obtain additional education or training to enhance their employability and earning power; and
WHEREAS, In 2017, the EITC lifted 5.7 million people out of poverty nationally, including approximately 3 million children; and it reduced the severity of poverty for another 19.5 million people, including 7.3 million children; and
WHEREAS, An estimated 546,000 Chicagoans, or 22 percent ofChicago households, are eligible ...
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