Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ohio 13th Congressional District Congresswoman Emilia Sykes (D-OH) (pictured) an Akron Democrat and one of three Black women in Congress from Ohio, has introduced the Lower Your Taxes Act. It would lower costs for Ohio workers and other workers and families and grow the middle class by expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC), and would  pay for those expansions by making large corporations pay their fair share in taxes. Full bill text can be found here.

"When I ran for Congress, I promised to fight for lower costs and to expand opportunity. The Lower Your Taxes Act does exactly that," said Congresswoman Sykes, a former minority leader of the Ohio house of Representatives and the uoungest of Ohio's five-member Democratic congressional delegation. "By expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, we're investing in working people and putting more of your hard-earned money back into your pocket at a time when families need it the most."

The Lower Your Taxes Act would improve the EITC and the CTC by:

• Expanding the EITC by doubling the credit percentage for families with children and increasing the credit five-fold for those without children;
• Removing the EITC age cap and allowing individuals to begin taking the credit at 18 years of age instead of 25 years of age and eliminating the age cap of 65 years of age;
• Linking the earned income amount and the phaseout amount to inflation to ensure recipients receive the most generous benefit possible;
• Increasing the EITC phaseout percentage, the earned income amount, and the phaseout amount, all of which increase the amount of money put back in the pockets of qualifying families;
• Eliminating any marriage penalties for married couples filing jointly versus marries couples filing individually;
• Requiring that the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service provide notification to filers who do not take the EITC to make them aware that they could receive a more substantial tax refund had they taken that credit; and
• Reinstating the American Rescue Plan Act Child Tax Credit expansion where payments to families with a child under six would rise to $350/month and payments for a child over six would rise to $300/month.

The Lower Your Taxes Act would also ensure wealthy corporations pay their fair share in taxes by:

• Cracking down on corporate greed by modifying the corporate alternative minimum tax to create a 25% tax bracket for corporate profits over the amount of $5 billion;
• Returning the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, eliminating the Trump Tax Plan that prioritized tax breaks for large corporations at the expense of working people;
• Increasing the excise tax rate for corporate stock buybacks to 4% from 1%; and
• Treating the capital gains of individuals with over $1 million in personal income as taxable income, as opposed to capital gains.

Full bill text can be found here.

• Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

• By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chieF
• WASHINGTON, D.C- Former president Donald Trump's endorsement of Ohio Republican Congressman Jim Jordan as the next speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives may not be the kiss of death after all, as Jordan has emerged as a viable contender after Rep Steve Scalise, also a Republican, withdrew his bid for the speaker's job this week.
• The House ousted then speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this month, led by hard-line Republicans who said he was getting too cozy with Democrats and could not be trusted.   A Champaign, Ohio Republican and outspoken conservative, Jordan then decided he wanted to be speaker,
• "We are at a critical crossroad in our nation's history," Jordan said in a statement announcing his candidacy for the congressional leadership role as Congress remains without a speaker of the House and  at a political stalemate on public policy issues such as additional funding for Ukraine and some domestic and other policy matters.
• Trump's endorsement of Jordan came right after the aforementioned announcement, Trump a candidate for the 2024 presidential election along with a crowded field of Republican nomination wannabees, and of course President Biden, his strongest competitor, if he wins the Republican primary.
• In spite of Jordan's enthusiasm, Rep. Scalise soon gathered ground support among Congressional Republicans, and that support began to wane this week. By a vote of 113-99, Scalise Jordan. He was, however, short of the votes needed to win a majority of the full House, which is  217 if all current members are present and voting.
• This opened the door for Jordan to seek support and he was nominated Friday by Republicans for the post with support from Scalise, and a full House vote expected next week.
• This is a continuing story.

• Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

• By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief
• WASHINGTON, D.C- Former president Donald Trump's endorsement of Ohio Republican Congressman Jim Jordan (pictured) as the next speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives may not be the kiss of death after all, as Jordan has emerged as a viable contender after Rep Steve Scalise, also a Republican, withdrew his bid for the speaker's job on Friday.
• The House ousted then speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this month, led by hard-line Republicans who said he was getting too cozy with Democrats and could not be trusted.   A Champaign, Ohio Republican and outspoken conservative, Jordan then decided he wanted to be speaker,
• "We are at a critical crossroad in our nation's history," Jordan said in a statement announcing his candidacy for the congressional leadership role as Congress remains without a speaker of the House and  at a political stalemate on public policy issues such as additional funding for Ukraine and some domestic and other policy matters.
• Trump's endorsement of Jordan came right after the aforementioned announcement, Trump a candidate for the 2024 presidential election along with a crowded field of Republican nomination wannabees, and of course President Biden, his strongest competitor, if he wins the Republican primary.
• In spite of Jordan's enthusiasm, Rep. Scalise soon gathered ground support among Congressional Republicans, and that support began to wane this week. By a vote of 113-99, Scalise won the internal vote from House Republicans over Jordan He was, however, short of the votes needed to win a majority of the full House, which is  217 if all current members are present and voting. Hence, he quit the race.
• This opened the door for Jordan to again seek support and he was nominated Friday by Republicans for the post internally with support, ironically, from Scalise.
• A full House vote is expected next week.
• Republicans hold a slim majority in the House, and Democrats narrowly control the Senate.
• This is a continuing story from Ohio's Black digital news leader.

• Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

By Fair Fight Action

Have you heard the pro-voter news out of Alabama and Florida?

In both states, anti-voter extremists had tried to weaken Black political power by manipulating the congressional redistricting process — but courts have now struck down those efforts.

Let's back up a little, talk about how we got here, and lay out what comes next.

States recently had to launch their once-a-decade process of redrawing district lines, also known as redistricting. And it opened the door for extremists to further obstruct democracy through racial gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering is the process of drawing district boundaries, often in illogical ways, to intentionally advantage one political party. And it's one of the many tactics extremists are using to dilute the voting power of Black, brown, and young voters. How? By packing certain voters into as few districts as possible.

Here's what that looked like in four states — and here's where those efforts stand:

Alabama
Twenty seven percent of Alabama's population is Black, but the state only has one Black member of the U.S. House — representing the one district where Black voters are a majority.

How did this happen? Well, the extremist governor and state legislature refused to fairly represent the Black population when they recently redrew their Congressional map. The U.S. Supreme Court has since ruled that their map was unconstitutional. Still, the state's leaders openly defied a federal court order and tried to go ahead with their original plan. But in late September, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court's decision to block that map — a victory for the pro-democracy movement.

Florida
Governor Ron DeSantis fought for a congressional map designed to eliminate a historically Black district. Pro-voter groups took the plan to court. In early September, a state judge ruled against the new map, and a federal court started hearing the case in late September.

Georgia
Extremist lawmakers enacted congressional and state legislative maps that were specifically designed to weaken Black voting power in particular districts. Black voters and our pro-voter partners filed a lawsuit to challenge these unfair maps, and the case was recently heard in federal court.

Ohio
After two years of redrawing state legislative maps, the Ohio Redistricting Committee voted unanimously in late September to adopt new maps drawn along party lines that will heavily favor Republican extremists. There are three ongoing court cases that challenge the current gerrymandered maps — in part for how they weaken Black political power — and the Ohio Supreme Court has struck down five of the ORC's proposed maps so far.

We'll keep an eye on these cases and continue pushing back against attempts to weaken Black political power.

Make no mistake, gerrymandering is part of a larger national agenda to block representation for marginalized groups and push ballot access further out of reach. As extremists inevitably continue to design unfair maps, we'll fight back even harder to ensure that eligible voters can make their voices heard.

Thanks for all your support,

The Fair Fight Action Team

• Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.