25 PDX METRO Cities EITC TY 2012: Portland Ranked #23 in Avg EITC $$ per filer, and #8th in % of All Filers Using EITC; Cornelius ranked #1 in Both.

I downloaded and did some calculations of the use of the federal EITC by 25 cities in Metro's jurisdiction during TY 2012 (Vancouver is not included). 

Results are in Excel workbook HERE and embedded below. Rankings are in far right columns (if you download the Excel file and unhide columns you will see all the detail, including information about the use of child care tax credits). I also included a worksheet with the same data for ALL Oregon cities. 

Some PDX 25 city observations: 

1. Cornelius leads all 25 cities in the percentage of all returns using the EITC [21.9%] and the average amount of EITC $$ per EITC return [$2,401]. Making a BIG assumption that each Cornelius filer receiving the EITC worked the same number of hours as a full time employee, this would be the equivalent of an average hourly wage boost of $1.15 per hour ($2,401 /2080 hours = $1.15 per hour).
2. Portland ranks only 8th in the percentage of all returns using the EITC [16.3%] and 23rd in the average amount of EITC $$ per EITC return. [$1,786] (Gresham ranked 3rd and 4th).
3. The Metro 25 city average in the percentage of all returns using the EITC [15.1%] and the average amount of EITC $$ per EITC return [$1,932] were BOTH BELOW the statewide average of 18.1% of all returns receiving the EITC and the $2,181 average EITC amount per EITC return. 
4. Families with children in these 25 PDX metro cities received $155 million in federal EITC $$ in TY 2012 and an additional $170 million in child care tax credits for a total of $325 million. (Recall that in prior post HERE I calculated that statewide TY 2012 federal EITC and Child Tax Credits combined were $1.12 BILLION with EITC at $556 Million).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.