Brown announces expansion to tax credits

WASHINGTON D.C. — Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) held a news conference with reporters on Wednesday afternoon announcing an expansion to Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, which he tabbed as a victory for working families. Brown expects the American Rescue Plan to pass sometime this week.

“[It] includes a dramatic expansion of the two most important tools we have to make hard work pay off and lift kids out of poverty,” Brown said. “The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC).”

This is something he’s been working on for years that he said would cut child poverty by 50% in the state and allow Ohioans to keep more money.

“Even before this pandemic, hard work wasn’t paying off for millions of workers,” he said. “Wages have been flat for decades, [and] the cost of everything is up. Particularly the cost of raising children.”

Brown said his plan will make the CTC refundable and increase the amount to $3,000 per child and $3,600 per child under the age of six; up from its current rate of $2,000 per child under 17 years old. Brown hopes to get money for the CTC out in a matter of weeks. The money would be rolled out monthly.

It would also expand the EITC for workers without children.

Brown’s plan would let taxpayers substitute their 2021 income with their 2019 income provided their 2021 income was less than it was in 2019.

“It would ensure that Ohioans aren’t penalized for financial challenges brought on by the pandemic,” Brown said.

According to Brown, these changes would put more money in the pockets of roughly 2 million residents. Brown thanked Angela Lowery, director of financial empowerment for United Way of Summit and Medina. Lowery also oversees the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program for Akron. VITA is sponsored by the IRS and offers free tax preparation for low- to moderateincome households.

Lowery then pointed out how many Ohio families have turned to her and VITA this year for assistance.

“So many people are behind on their bills, deferring needed expens

es, and their tax refunds are offering at least some relief for them,” Lowery said.

Lowery also said she supports the proposed changes to the CTC.

“Just yesterday at our VITA site, I had a conversation with a woman whose daughter is turning 17 this year,” Lowery said. “We both agreed that having a 17-year-old in your house is really no less expensive than having a 16-year-old in your house, so I think it makes sense to give parents that extra year of support by expanding the credit.”

Brown said he cosponsored a bill with Sen. Bill Cassidy (RLA) last year that allowed a look-back provision for 2020. Essentially, if you earned less in 2020 than 2019, the rule allowed you to file using whichever income earned you more money.

Following the press conference, Brown took questions on a multitude of subjects.

On USPS and their request for Biden’s team to get involved and the potential removal of Louis DeJoy, Brown said there is a possibility to fix it, but couldn’t predict when it would happen.

“The Biden people want to replace him but they can’t directly replace him,” Brown said. “They’ve got to change the Postal Board, so President Biden just submitted three people to be nominated for that Postal Board.”

Brown admitted postal service has deteriorated and blamed the poorer service on the politicalization of the job.

On the nomination process for the three federal judgeships, U.S. Attorney and U.S. Marshall positions and the particular characteristics he’s looking at, Brown said the federal judge positions are being considered under a bipartisan commission but that ultimately he only makes recommendations to Biden.

“I don’t choose the judge,” Brown said.

He said the process is similar for the U.S. Attorney position, and that diversity was key in every search when making recommendations.

On Gov. DeWine’s complaints the formula for determining the amount of money each state receives from the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill should be based on state population instead of unemployment rate, Brown was noncommittal either way.

“Gov. DeWine should have taken up last year with Mitch McConnell why McConnell was unwilling to send money to state and local governments [after] he said they were all blue states,” Brown said.

“We want these dollars to go directly to communities. I don’t want most of these dollars to go through the hands of state governments.”

He said he doesn’t agree with DeWine’s or McConnell’s priorities because they blocked needed money to areas that needed it.

On concerns the stimulus could lead to inflation down the line, Brown said he’s spoken with economists on both sides of the aisle.

“In their minds it’s not close to being in the even medium-distant future,” he said.

Brown was unsure when checks for either the EITC or CTC would be available.

“We’re trying to get it all out as fast as possible,” Brown said.

Brown also hopes the new rescue package will be big enough that their won’t be a need for another rescue in the future.