Golden State Opportunity

GSO's signature program is a statewide outreach campaign called CalEITC4Me to encourage low-income Californians to claim the state's earned income tax credit as well as the Federal earned income tax credit. Federal and state earned income tax credits, which incentivize and reward work, are the most important poverty reduction programs in existence. The earned income tax credit and child tax credit have reduced poverty by an estimated 3.2 percentage points, and have decreased poverty rates for children by a full 6 percentage points from 31.1 percent to 25.1 percent. Despite the efforts of these programs, a large number of Californians remain in poverty, many unaware of the resources available to them. Promoting greater participation in existing programs and encouraging new, innovative approaches to fighting causes of poverty would lead to drastic improvements in the standard of living for many low income families struggling to get by.