WHEREAS, mayors are committed to providing financial opportunity and security to all residents of their cities; and

WHEREAS, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) helps all working low-income families and individuals, including legal immigrants, to attain self-sufficiency; and

WHEREAS, the EITC is one of the most successful anti-poverty programs ever developed, each year lifting 4.9 million people – including 2.7 million children – above the poverty line; and

WHEREAS, EITC makes work pay for low-income families earning less than $36,000 per year by rewarding work for those families that are playing by the rules but still are not able to get ahead; and

WHEREAS, the average EITC benefit is $1,700, which families use to help them get ahead, from helping pay school tuition to purchasing basic appliances; and

WHEREAS, in tax year 2003 the EITC returned more than $37 billion to 21 million working families nationwide; and

WHEREAS, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimates that every EITC dollar received puts up to $3 back into local communities; and

WHEREAS, EITC has low administrative overhead, as 97¢ of every dollar allocated for the EITC goes directly to families; and

WHEREAS, EITC reduces tax inequality by offsetting the disadvantage faced by low-income people who do not own a home, cannot claim the mortgage deduction on their taxes, and pay a disproportionate share of their income in sales tax; and

WHEREAS, Mayors of several cities, including San Francisco, New York, and Washington, DC have created a local match to the EITC to encourage residents to apply for this federal program; and

WHEREAS, the Administration has proposed reducing funding to the EITC by $19 billion over 5 years; and

WHEREAS, this proposed reduction will increase the inequality in the tax burden faced by our citizens, and will force more working families who play by the rules back into poverty,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the U.S. Conference of Mayors urges the Administration and Congress to fully preserve and oppose cuts in the Earned Income Tax Credit.