The policy "runs counter to decades of efforts by policymakers across the political spectrum to help families work their way out of poverty."
In a report released this week, the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities casts a critical eye on the Bayou State's continuing fiscal policy of levying income taxes on poor and working-poor families, concluding the policy "runs counter to decades of efforts by policymakers across the political spectrum to help families work their way out of poverty."
The federal government and a majority of U.S. states have eliminated income taxes on the poorest families.
Among the findings in the report:
Louisiana was one of 11 states in which a single-parent family of three living at the poverty line still owed state income taxes. The poverty line for a family of three in 2010 was $17,374.
Louisiana was also one of 15 states in which a two-parent family of four living at the poverty line still owed income taxes. The poverty line for a family of four in 2010 was $22,314.
Louisiana is among 22 states where a family of three living just above the poverty line (125 percent of poverty, or $21,718 per year) pays income taxes, and one of 23 states that tax families of four earning 125 percent of the poverty line ($27,893).
Read the full report here.