Tony Lee worked for many years as the advocacy director of Statewide Poverty Action Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending the root causes of poverty and creating opportunities to prosper for people in Washington state. In 2007, Tony began discussing (and advocating for!) the possibility of creating a state version of the federal earned income tax credit (EITC) in Washington with his fellow advocates at the newly created Washington State Budget & Policy Center (B&PC). Tony was told that it was not possible for Washington to create an EITC as there is no income tax in this state and therefore no money or structure to implement and fund it.
Tony persisted and through his leadership, vision and hopefulness he persuaded B&PC to join him in researching how Washington could adopt an EITC for low-income working families. The idea grew and developed and soon a coalition formed to research, draft, and advocate in the State Legislature. A bill passed in 2008 with broad bipartisan support, but the legislature was unable to fund it as the 2008 recession hit the national economy. Finally in 2021, a similar bill passed; this time it included full funding and had been improved to be more inclusive and equitable. Now in Washington, very low-income individuals and families, immigrants, and domestic violence survivors can access this tax credit. At the bill signing ceremony on April 4, 2021, Gov. Jay Inslee named the bill in honor of Tony Lee.
"The work that we have done has really begun to shift Olympia's attention to make sure that we target resources to the people who need it the most." — Tony Lee
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