Along with local agency and government leaders, the event also featured former Iowa Fourth District candidate J.D. Scholten, who faced U.S. Rep. Steve King in a close race in 2018. The leaders said the credit can be huge in helping low- and moderate-income families get ahead.

“Really, the most effective tool that I’ve seen in the various toolboxes that we have as a country for dealing with poverty is, in fact, the Earned Income Tax Credit,” Delaney said. “Really, what it is is a worker’s tax credit.”

The tax credit is provided to help people considered low- or moderate income earners get more money back when the receive their tax return each year.

The roundtable Tuesday was hosted by Scholten, who after running for a seat in Congress co-founded the Working Hero Iowa nonprofit organization.

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS - Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Rep. John Delaney discusses the Earned Income Tax Credit at a roundtable at the Iowa Veterans Home Tuesday.

“Our biggest push right now is to raise awareness,” Scholten said of the Earned Income Tax Credit. “In Iowa, 25 percent of the people who are eligible for it are not receiving it and we’re leaving $120 million to $147 million on the table for low-income people.”

Representatives from Mid-Iowa Community Action (MICA) and Marshalltown Schools discussed how the tax credit helps families they work with who are living in or near poverty.

MICA Executive Director Arlene McAtee shared information on many of the 22,000 people served by the agency. She said many people work full time but still are struggling to get by despite their hard work, making the Earned Income Tax Credit an important tool.

Maranda Jurado, who works as a substitute teacher for MICA, and her family rely on the tax credit. She said her family just misses out on the qualifications for government programs like food stamps.

“A lot of times, the people who are staying home and choosing not to work, it’s because it makes more sense to stay home than to go to work,” Jurado said. “That’s kind of the catch-22.”

She said the tax credit helped her family afford a vehicle big enough to fit herself, husband and children. It isn’t a luxury vehicle – Jurado described it as a “cheap little van” – but it fits the family and they bought it up front without taking out a loan.

Marshalltown Schools Director of Instruction Lisa Stevenson said the schools have also had to learn about the challenges of poverty. She estimated about 60-70 percent of district students qualify for federal free or reduced-price lunch, an indicator of poverty.

“I know as a public educator that our job just keeps getting bigger and bigger,” Stevenson said.

As the conditions of poverty have changed over the years, Stevenson said public schools have picked up a lot of additional responsibility in helping families and children outside of the academic realm.

“We know our families are struggling. We know Earned Income Tax Credits help them and they’re having to make all kinds of hard choices,” she said. “Anything the school system can do to help offset that, we see that as being part of our job, too.”

The district offers several mental health services, as well as some medical and dental services to offset costs for families. Transportation for preschoolers has also been added to help parents who do not have time to take their kids to and from class.

Scholten said Working Hero Iowa will continue to gather information and experiences from across the state while searching for solutions to poverty.

Delaney looks for Democratic nod

The former Maryland congressman put his name in contention for the Democratic presidential nomination back in the summer of 2017.

Delaney said the Earned Income Tax Credit should be doubled and wants to make it a centerpiece of tax policy talk in the U.S.

More generally, Delaney said he stands out from the growing field of Democratic rivals.

“I’m running as a pragmatic idealist,” he said. “I want to do big things to make the world better, but I actually want to get it done.”

Delaney described himself as a centrist and a moderate who is willing to build coalitions to solve problems.

I want to unify the nation, solve problems and lay out a vision for a more moral and just and prosperous future,” he said. “We’ve had decades of people talking about stuff but not doing it.”

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Contact Adam Sodders at

(641) 753-6611 or

asodders@timesrepublican.com