Impact of Earned Income Tax Credit

Cash. (CC0 Creative Commons).

Wisconsin’s families should have access to economic opportunity regardless of where they live in the state. That’s why Governor Tony Evers has proposed increasing the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit, which would help low-income working families across the state keep more of what they earn, making it more likely they can achieve economic security.

A larger EITC would leave more money in the pockets of low-income working families all across Wisconsin, from the rural counties in the northwestern part of the state to the urban centers of the southeast. These workers would spend the additional resources in their local communities getting their cars repaired, buying school supplies for their children, catching up on utility bills, and otherwise paying for items and services that their families need to thrive.

To show the extent that the EITC benefits families around the state, we’ve put together a map that shows just how much low-income working families in each county would benefit. Hover over a county to see the benefit to families in that area. All told, expanding the EITC would boost wages for about 190,000 families and pump $27 million a year back into local communities in Wisconsin.

In early May, Republican legislators stripped the EITC expansion out of the Governor’s version of the budget, along with many other provisions that would help hundreds of thousands of low-income Wisconsin residents who are struggling to make ends meet. The final budget bill could still include some version of an expansion if it is inserted later in the process, but by removing it now, legislators are signaling that they have little interest in leaving more money in the pockets of workers with low incomes.