As a small-business owner in Bath, I am pleased to see that my state senator, Eloise Vitelli, introduced the Maine Work Credit bill (L.D. 104), an expansion of the highly effective Earned Income Tax Credit.

The federal EITC helps hundreds of thousands of Mainers make ends meet. It has worked so well that 29 states, including Maine, have their own versions. Unfortunately, Maine’s state level credit is the smallest in the nation (tied with Louisiana and Oklahoma), at just 5 percent of the federal credit.

The Maine Work Credit would deepen that credit to 23 percent and would expand it to apply to not only low-income folks but also more middle-class households, who also struggle with rising living costs.

The Maine Work Credit could be a real benefit to small businesses such as mine. The majority of small-business owners in Maine are working class. We would directly benefit.

Plus, working families often spend money from their tax credits at small local businesses. We small-business owners can then spend more available money in our local economy, purchasing goods and services. (Generally, we are not stock market investors.) It has a real circular effect.

Valuing our working people and our small businesses creates a positive feedback loop that fosters a strong, rooted, local economy that makes Maine a great place to live.

This bill was advanced by a bipartisan vote of the Taxation Committee. I urge our Legislature to pass the Maine Work Credit, and I urge readers to ask them to do so.

Susan Lubner

Bath