Not long ago in the Oceanside WalMart, I observed a little 12 or 13 year old Mexican girl, probably a Zapotec Indian from the 3000 of them that live in Oceanside, in the furniture section.

 Her father, obviously a farm worker, was listening attentively to her as she told him that this particular computer desk was what she needed for her computer so she could do her school work. It had a shelf for her printer and one for her keyboard and it didn’t cost much. Her pitch was in perfect Spanish. When I asked her what kind of computer she had, she explained in perfect English that she had a PC that had been donated to her by a foundation that gave one to all the kids in her school.

 I am thinking of her and her father as I write this; California unemployment is at modern record levels, poverty is growing, the state is drowning in red ink — so now, now is the time to attack, to find a nugget of hope and treasure that can help people and the state, that can cut back on state expenditures and to, again, help people who need it like the girl and her farm worker family.

 There’s a billion dollars of Federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on the table that California can help bring home to an estimated 600,000 California families like this little girl’s. It is a tax credit that they are entitled to now but don’t get; yet they could get it with just a tiny tweak by the State Legislature in next week’s Special Legislative Session called by the Governor.

 That’s a BILLION dollars for families that really need it, people who more than likely make less than $25,000 or $30,000 like the Zapotec girl’s family. These are families that are being devastated by this once in a lifetime economic disaster that is eroding the basic ability to endure such hard times.

 The Federal government and 20 other states have a program of free filing of federal and state tax returns that assists families to file federal and state taxes and the service is free, it’s called “IRS Free File.”  This is the program that will help deliver a Billion dollars in checks to the families who so need the money now, not down the road if and when new programs are developed. This program exists now and has been used for a decade.

 This is a public/private partnership between the IRS and the American software industry. It provides free online tax preparation and filing to low and middle income families throughout the country. Any family earning $56,000 or less can use this system free of charge. This program is almost ten years old and has been used by millions of families and it doesn’t cost public taxpayers a cent.

 California is not part of that system. It has its own program (Ready Return) that doesn’t complete the federal system so when one uses the California system that filing is not made with the Internal Revenue System (IRS) so an estimated 600,000 families are not filing for the federal earned income tax credit and not getting a billion dollars in checks mailed to them like those who use IRS Free File. We must remember that President Ronald Reagan commented on the Earned Income Tax Credit as its being the most effective way to fight poverty in the country.

 That being the case why doesn’t the state switch to IRS Free File?

 If it does, the state can stop spending millions on its own program. If it does, the state can take those saved dollars and spend them on programs the public needs of law enforcement, schools, roads and all the other necessary things the State needs to do. If it does, an estimated $3 or $4 per state return can be saved. That could amount to millions.

 Yes, I’m being redundant. There are millions of dollars that can be saved here if the Legislature will do this for everyone earning less than $56,000. Those people make up 70 percent of those that file income tax forms and that is a lot of people, people.

 Combining the millions that will be saved with a billion dollars coming to California to those 600,000 families that aren’t automatically getting that money now, we are talking a mini-Gold Rush here, aren’t we?

 If I were a state assembly person or state senator I would count the hundreds of thousands of Californians who would benefit by one thousand million dollars from using IRS Free File, count the millions saved in the state budget next year and thereafter and be thankful that I would have the opportunity to vote on ending the California program and joining a national system that does what it does. I would vote to do this for all California and for the little Zapotec Indian girl and her hard working family.