On January 30, 2013, the national organization CFED will be releasing their annual Assets & Opportunities Scorecard. The scorecard grades states across the U.S. on how well they help their residents build financial resiliency and offers recommendations for improvement. Neighborhood Partnerships is pleased to be a Lead State Organization for the Assets & Opportunity Network, and will be helping to share the data here in Oregon.
The Scorecard will not only give Oregon a grade about how we’re doing to help our residents access and build financial resiliency, it will also paint a picture of how Oregonians are doing financially. It will measure job quality and incomes, access to education and homeownership, and will measure both income poverty (how much people earn) and asset poverty (how much people are able to save).
One of the most effective ways to help people move out of poverty is the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC. The EITC is for working families, and helps them make ends meet by providing a refund at tax time. Many families use the refund to pay rent, repair a car, pay down debt, or start saving. In Oregon, we have a state EITC that’s due to sunset in 2013, unless the Legislature chooses to renew it. Neighborhood Partnerships and the Housing Alliance are supporting efforts to extend this tax credit and help make sure working families across Oregon have a pathway out of poverty for themselves and their children.
Neighborhood Partnerships has also been working with advocates across the state to discuss how we can better build household financial resilience in Oregon. We met in late October, and are planning to meet again in February, after the release of the CFED Scorecard. If you’re interested in joining us to discuss rebuilding pathways to the middle class for all Oregonians, please email Alison.