Call on Congress to make fair and responsible tax decisions

Our nation faces two critical challenges: a fragile economic recovery and long-term budget deficits. As Congress faces important tax votes this fall, they should choose a path that supports our economic recovery by helping families who are struggling today and that reforms our tax code to reduce the national debt.

Please join our organizational sign-on letter that urges the Minnesota Congressional delegation to support the following positions:

• Allow the 2001 and 2003 high-income tax cuts to expire. Making these tax cuts permanent would add nearly $1 trillion to the national deficit over the next decade (including added interest costs). The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has found that extending the tax cuts for high-income households (those with incomes over $250,000) would be the least effective of all the options they evaluated in promoting economic growth and creating jobs.
• Reinstate the federal estate tax permanently at 2009 levels. Under the 2001 tax law, the federal estate tax phased out this year but will return next year at 2001 parameters. We support a reasonable compromise: reinstate the estate tax at 2009 levels. Only the wealthiest one out of 400 estates in the country would owe any estate tax.
• Permanently extend improvements in the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit for working low- and moderate-income households. The Child Tax Credit improvements have brought an additional $126 million to approximately 156,000 Minnesota families since February 2009 when they were passed as part of the Recovery Act. If the Child Tax Credit improvements are not extended, a Minnesota parent of two children working for the minimum wage would see her Child Tax Credit drop by $1,477 in 2011. Similarly, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) improvements have brought an additional $51 million to approximately 102,000 working Minnesota families since February 2009. Extending both of these tax credits is vital to helping low- and moderate-income Minnesota families make ends meet during these difficult economic times and would also stimulate economic growth.

Please join the letter by Tuesday, September 21. If you need additional information, contact Steve Francisco at steve@mncn.org. Please share this letter with any organizations that you think may be interested in joining us.

-Steve Francisco