Tax break may grow for working poor, By Peter Wong, February 14, 2010, Salem Statesman Journal: “An expansion of a tax break for poor working families won support from Portland to Medford – and Woodburn. The expanded break, in the form of an earned-income tax credit, no longer would benefit Ian Finch of Portland or state Rep. Betty Komp of Woodburn. But both qualified for the federal credit, which is subtracted directly from taxes owed – and they said an expanded state credit would help thousands of families. Finch used the credit while, as a single father of five children, he was working and going to school – even though he said he could have drawn more from welfare payments. ‘Increasing the state earned-income tax credit will help other families who work really hard to break the cycle of poverty,’ Finch told the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee last week. ‘This is also an opportunity for the state of Oregon to send the message to these hard-working families that they are valued and that the state recognizes all their hard work…'”
Day: February 15, 2010
Poverty Rate – Toledo, OH
Hard times tighten vise on the poor; U.S. ranks Toledo as nation’s 8th-most impoverished, By Tom Henry, February 14, 2010, Toledo Blade: “One in four. What does it mean? Every dollar has four quarters. So does every football game. Every gallon of milk and every gallon of gasoline has four quarts. But try to explain what it means to live in a city such as Toledo, where one of every four people now lives below the poverty line. There is no tidy way to package and deliver the answer. The latest U.S. Census Bureau poverty statistics rank Toledo the nation’s eighth most impoverished city, with 24.7 percent of its residents living below the poverty line. That’s nearly twice the national poverty rate of 13.2 percent. Many believe the situation is worse now locally and nationally, given that those Census figures were based on late 2008 data. America’s economic crisis worsened during the first half of 2009…”
Medicaid and Dental Care – Illinois
State can’t afford to improve dental service for poor, official says, By Dean Olson, February 14, 2010, State Journal-Register: “The difficulties low-income Illinoisans encounter in obtaining dental care are no secret, a state official says. But amid a recession and a multibillion-dollar state budget deficit, the tens of millions of dollars that would be needed to make a dent in the problem aren’t available, Illinois Medicaid director Theresa Eagleson said. ‘I don’t think the dental-access issue is an Illinois problem alone,’ she said. ‘And it’s not that people don’t want to fix this problem, or other access issues in pockets of the state. It’s a balancing act all the time between less money available and people in need and priorities.’ Decades of low and slow payments through Medicaid – which pays health-care bills for certain low- and moderate-income people – have driven away most Illinois dentists. At most, fewer than one out of every three Illinois dentists is signed up to bill the program. And statistics indicate that as few as 10 percent of Illinois dentists are regularly billing Medicaid for service…”