The director of a nonprofit group says state lawmakers didn’t go far enough last year in easing the tax burden on poor families in Arkansas.

Rich Huddleston, executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, said today the group will ask the Legislature next year to correct what it considers a flaw in a 2007 law that eliminated many from state income tax rolls.

Act 195 of 2007 raised the minimum level at which Arkansans start owing taxes to the federal poverty level — $9,800 for an individual and $20,000 for a family of four. Huddleston says the law sought to offset the cost of raising children by providing a tax credit for married couples with more than one child, but the credit for single-parent homes is the same regardless of the number of children in the home.

He says Arkansas Advocates will ask the Legislature to increase the credit for single-parent families with two or more children.

“We shouldn’t penalize our most economically vulnerable families simply because of their marital status or the number of children they have,” Huddleston says in a news release.

Tags: Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, income tax, Rich Huddleston

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