Mike Bloomberg Unveils New Housing and Earned Income Tax Credit Proposals

Mike has unveiled two new proposals designed to help address affordability and create economic opportunity for all Americans. The proposals build on Mike’s record as Mayor of New York City, where he pioneered programs that helped more New Yorkers gain access to housing and build house wealth.

Mike’s housing proposals address the nation’s severe shortage of affordable housing, including an expansion of funding for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) that would add hundreds of thousands of units of affordable housing over ten years. The proposal also calls for an increase in federal spending in programs like Public Housing Capital Fund, the HOME program, Community Development Block Grants. In addition, the proposal sets aside $10 billion for a competition to reward municipalities that offer the best solutions to restrictive zoning and other obstacles, as well as increasing funding for federal housing vouchers and reforming them.

Mike’s proposals to reform the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) focus on the need for effective programs to raise the incomes of low-wage workers, encourage economic participation, share the gains of growth more broadly, and do as much as possible to end poverty in work. The proposals call for reforming the EITC to make it much more generous, especially for single childless workers, as well as simplifying the rules so that the credit is easier to administer. He also proposed a pilot program to expand the EITC benefit to cover family caregiving and other forms of unpaid or ineligible employment, with the goal of making this an integral part of his EITC reform. The proposal will also increase the Child Tax Credit to make it fully refundable, and phase it in faster, starting with the first dollar of earnings. The Child Tax Credit currently works alongside the EITC and raises the incomes of almost all working families, but it does too little for the poorest households.

And, as part of the proposal, Mike is calling for the minimum wage to be raised to $15 an hour by 2025 and then to be indexed to growth in median earnings.

“I’m running for president to reunite and rebuild our country — because too many Americans are struggling just to get by, and they’ve been ignored by Washington for too long,” said Mike Bloomberg. “The proposals we announced today reflect my determination to wage war on poverty — a more innovative and effective war, not business-as-usual, and one that engages trailblazing local leaders like Mayor Tubbs.”