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We in Flathead County welcome thousands of tourists every summer as they vacation in or near Glacier National Park, contributing to our local economy while thrilling to natural beauty. Significant numbers of workers in the service trades: cashiers, cooks, food servers, housekeepers, janitors, and others, make that possible.

These low-wage earners, among those like construction workers and home health aides, are kept from being payroll taxed into poverty by the Earned Income Tax Credit (the EITC).

Nationwide, the EITC is effective in lowering poverty rates as reported by the U.S. Census poverty data for 2015. Released last month, the data shows America’s official poverty rate in 2015 at 13.5 percent, down from 14.8 percent in 2014. The Census data also shows that the EITC and Child Tax Credit lifted 9.2 million people above the poverty line in 2015, thus going a long way to reducing poverty. This drop is good, but too many still live below the poverty line, about 43.1 million U.S. citizens as reported.

According to the Census, 15 percent of our fellow Flathead County residents (population 95,447) are living below the poverty line. That’s an estimated 14,227 of us. We can do better.

Many of those workers listed above, if they don’t have children, are largely excluded from the EITC. In fact, they are the only group that are actually taxed into poverty. Bipartisan proposals exist to expand the EITC for low-wage earners who aren’t raising children in the home and to lower the eligibility age to 21. This would extend the EITC to many workers in the Flathead and to those doing a range of jobs in every state. Please contact Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines and Rep. Ryan Zinke. Urge them to support expanding the EITC. —Karen Cunningham, Coram