MEDIA ADVISORY

For Embargoed Release:

April 16, 2001

Kentucky’s Tax Burden on Working Poor Remains Unfair

Frankfort, KY – The Coalition for Tax Fairness will hold dual press conferences on Tax Day, Monday, April 16, at the main post offices in Louisville and Lexington. Coalition members will address the excessive tax burden Kentucky imposes on working families. State Representative Jim Wayne (D-Louisville) and other members of the General Assembly will be present to discuss pre-filed tax reform legislation for the 2002 session. Also, low-income taxpayers will be present to share their personal stories.

Lexington Location: Main Post Office, 1088 Nandino Boulevard at 5:00 P.M.

Louisville Location: Gardiner Lane Post Office, 1420 Gardiner Lane at 4:00 P.M.

Kentucky Youth Advocates, the Task Force on Hunger, and the Coalition for Tax Fairness were disappointed that the 2001 General Assembly failed to address Kentucky’s oppressive tax structure on the Commonwealth’s working poor.

Kentucky continues to have the most burdensome tax system for the working poor. Kentucky taxes a working poor family of four more highly than any other state with an income tax. “It is unconscionable that our state places such a high tax burden on working families with children- the group least able to pay taxes,” Debra Miller, Executive Director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, stated. The Coalition for Tax Fairness mission is to seek a fairer tax system and is calling upon the Kentucky General Assembly to provide a hand-up to Kentucky’s working families. According to Anne Joseph, Executive Director of the Kentucky Task Force on Hunger, “For a family of four at the poverty line tax fairness translates into four weeks worth of groceries or about $575.”

A Kentucky Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) would build on the federal EITC in which qualified families receive refundable tax credits to offset their total tax burden. Under Representative Wayne’s pre-filed proposal, these families would receive from the state an additional 5 percent of the federal credit in the first year the law would take effect, 10 percent the following year, and 15 percent every year thereafter. This initiative would provide much needed tax relief to over 300,000 low-income Kentucky tax-filers.

Supporters include the following groups: Kentucky State AFL-CIO, Kentucky Youth Advocates, Catholic Conference of Kentucky, Coalition for the Homeless, Kentucky Association for Community Action, Kentucky Task Force on Hunger, Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky, Catholic Charities, Kentucky Legal Services Program, Children’s Alliance, Kentucky Council of Churches, Kentucky Welfare Reform Coalition, Kentucky State District Council of Carpenters (AFL-CIO), 4-C (Louisville), Neighborhood Place Bridges of Hope, Metropolitan Housing Coalition (Louisville), NOW (Kentucky Chapter), League of Women Voters of Kentucky, Democracy Resource Center, Mental Health Association of Kentucky, Louisville Tenants Association, Kentuckians For The Commonwealth (KFTC), The Laurence and Augusta Hager Educational Foundation (Owensboro), The Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice, Kentucky Jobs with Justice, and Kentucky Child 2000.

####