Two Obama cabinet officials on Friday said an extension of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to Puerto Rico is one of the most surefire ways to help the island emerge from its fiscal crisis, MorningConsult.com reported on Friday. In a letter to members of a congressional task force that’s required to draft a report on the causes and possible solutions to Puerto Rico’s economic issues, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said that EITC expansion could be part of a toolbox of “proven, bipartisan tools for stimulating economic growth and rewarding work.” In an Aug. 26 letter to the eight-member bipartisan task force led by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Lew and Burwell wrote that “Adopting a locally-administered EITC consistent with the President’s budget proposal would pull 54,000 Puerto Ricans out of poverty and increase Puerto Rico’s Gross National Product by $1.05 billion, or 1.5 percent…. The EITC also can be expected to increase tax compliance and tax revenues, improving Puerto Rico’s fiscal position.” An expansion of the EITC to Puerto Rico’s residents was a key request of Democrats in the efforts to pass PROMESA, the law that set up debt restructuring tools to help San Juan emerge from its debt woes. Read more.
For more news and analysis of Puerto Rico's debt crisis, be sure to visit ABI's "Puerto Rico in Distress" webpage.
