Forty-two of Louisiana households earn less than $48,000 per year.

That is just plain shameful.

May 31, 2018

By Mark Ballard

...Working families (click here) that bring in less than $50,000 a year – about half the state – pay about 10 percent of their income in local and state taxes, which is roughly double the percentage paid by more well-off families, said Susan East Nelson, executive director of Louisiana Partnership for Children and Families.

For the constituents of the Ways & Means committee members, increasing the state’s earned income tax credit would put an average $141 – about $43 more than the $98 received now -- into the pockets of the 97,333 taxpayers taking advantage of the credit on their annual tax returns, said Jan Moller, director of the Louisiana Budget Project, which advocates on behalf of those with low and moderate incomes.

That extra money will be spent, mostly in the representatives’ districts, on necessities like clothing and car repairs, said Rob Tasman, executive director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops....