About a quarter-million Oregon working families face a tax increase if Senators in the minority fail to return to Salem to vote on legislation extending the state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), according to the Oregon Center for Public Policy (OCPP). The tax increase would impact nearly a million Oregonians, many of whom are children.

“Working families depend on the state EITC to make ends meet, and this vital tax credit is at risk because of the Senate walkout,” said OCPP policy analyst Janet Bauer.

House Bill 2164 extends several tax credits scheduled to expire, including the EITC. The bill also modestly increases the Oregon EITC, a tax credit that benefits one out of four children in Oregon, according to Bauer.

In some of the districts represented by Senators who have walked out of the legislative session, about one-fifth of all taxpayers would see a tax increase if the state EITC were to expire. These include the districts represented by Senators Cliff Bentz (20 percent of taxpayers), Herman Baertschiger (19 percent), Dennis Linthicum (19 percent), Bill Hansell (19 percent), and Dallas Heard (19 percent).

“Because of its effectiveness as an anti-poverty strategy, the EITC has long enjoyed bipartisan support,” said Bauer. “To ensure that taxes do not go up for low-income families, lawmakers must preserve the state EITC before the legislative session ends.”