ITEP's Research Priorities
Card Hub: Should Uncle Sam Take a Toke to Fill His Coffers?
August 28, 2013
(Original Post) by John Kiernan on August 27, 2013 When in doubt, look to the founding fathers. That’s what we do in this country, isn’t it? We reference the Constitution in order to rationalize legal disputes, questions of fundamental rights, the role of the military, etc. We hold our leaders up to the standards […]
South Dakota: Should SD repeal the grocery sales tax with a revenue neutral sales tax increase?
August 26, 2013
SD HB1154 proposes lowering state sales tax on certain food items and increasing sales tax on other goods and services in a revenue-neutral exchange. Read the Full Report
The Joplin Globe: Sloppy attempt would lead Missourians into dark hole
August 26, 2013
(Original Post) August 26, 2013 By Elliott Denniston Special to The Globe WEBB CITY, Mo. — Republican legislators and a handful of self-interested groups are campaigning to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of House Bill 253, a slipshod attempt to revise our income tax code. The bill drastically shifts the burden from high earners to […]
Huron County View: Immigration reform would boost revenue by $35 million
August 23, 2013
(Original Post) WASHINGTON — A new analysis estimates that unauthorized immigrants pay Michigan $126 million in state, local taxes. The study also estimates that Michigan would gain $35 million in increased revenue should undocumented immigrants in the U.S. be allowed to work legally. The analysis, from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, assumes a […]
Fox & Hounds: Immigration Reformers Must Tell a Better Story
August 21, 2013
(Original Post) By Joe Rodota CEO and founder of Forward Observer, a research and strategy firm Monday, August 19th, 2013 In a recent column, Washington Post Wonkblog writers Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas ask: “Why hasn’t this been immigration August?” Five years ago, they write, individual members of Congress were “engulfed by tea-partiers” protesting […]
US News & World Report: Immigration Reform Could Boost U.S. Economy
August 21, 2013
(Original Post) Study shows immigration bill would create 14,000 jobs in each congressional district By LAUREN FOX August 20, 2013 Opponents to immigration reform have called the Senate’s bipartisan and comprehensive immigration reform bill a “job killer,” but a new report by the conservative-leaning American Action Network, is evidence that the bill might just be […]
The Washington Times: Uneven results with changes to gas tax in Md., Va.
August 21, 2013
An 18-cent disparity in the cost of a gallon of gas between Maryland and Virginia appears to support predictions of radical price changes after lawmakers in both states took widely different approaches to raising transportation funding through gas taxes this year.
Southtown Star: What’s at stake for Illinois in immigration reform?
August 21, 2013
For instance, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently estimated that the immigration reform bill that passed the Senate in June would reduce the federal budget deficit by roughly $1 trillion over 20 years and would boost the U.S. economy as a whole without negatively affecting U.S. workers in the long run.
The Daily Camera: What’s at stake for Colorado in immigration reform?
August 21, 2013
As Congress takes a summer respite to figure out how to move immigration reform forward in the House, mounting evidence shows that reform would be a plus to the national economy. For instance, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently estimated that the immigration reform bill which passed the Senate in June (S. 744) would reduce the federal deficit by roughly $1 trillion over 20 years and would boost the U.S. economy as a whole without negatively affecting U.S. workers in the long run. In addition, an April report from the conservative American Action Forum, authored by a former director of…
Portsmouth Daily Time: To the Ohio House of Representatives, Tax Reform Study Committee
August 21, 2013
A study by the Joint Economic Committee of the Congress found in the 1970s that state taxes were one of the least driving factors in business location decisions, in part because state taxes could be written off on Federal taxes. Quality of life factors were seen as far more important. The Tax Foundation, set up in the 1930s to combat rising taxes under the New Deal, estimated in a 2006 study of businesses in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific that taxes accounted for 7 to 13 percent of business cost in manufacturing, and just 3 to 7 percent in…
A Closer Look at TABOR (Taxpayer Bill of Rights)
August 19, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
Colorado has become infamous for its Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR, a constitutional amendment restricting growth in revenue collections to an arbitrary "population-plus-inflation" formula. Although TABOR has had significant negative effects on Colorado's finances, similar proposals have surfaced in at least 30 states over the past decade. None of these proposals were approved, and in five states they were placed directly on a state-wide ballot where they were rejected by voters. Even in Colorado itself, citizens voted to suspend TABOR for five years in an effort to allow the s
Yakima Herald Republic: Advocates press economic argument for immigration reform
August 16, 2013
Echoing a host of recent reports, a coalition of grower and labor interests presented a new study Tuesday that concludes comprehensive immigration reform would create jobs and pump billions of dollars into the state and national economies.
Think Progress: GOP Governor Inadvertently Makes Case For Immigration Reform: We ‘Need To Reach Out To People Who Live In The Shadows’
August 16, 2013
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) on Thursday made a strong case for creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants -- without even knowing that's what he was doing.
The Patriot-News: Green energy’s unintended consequences: As I See It
August 16, 2013
The green energy movement -- the effort to switch from fossil fuels to cleaner, renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power, but also biofuels such as ethanol-is driven by good intentions ... mostly. But it is also riddled with unintended, even ridiculous, consequences that often outweigh the good the movement hopes to achieve.
CT News Junkie: The Important Message of the Sales-Tax Holiday
August 16, 2013
It's that time of year again, folks. Not only are my kids gearing up for a much-needed return to school, but sales tax holidays are sprouting up like weeds across the land of the free.
Associated Press: Liu Calls for Legalized Pot in NYC
August 14, 2013
New York City Comptroller John Liu is proposing a historic overhaul of the city's marijuana laws, believing that legalizing medical marijuana and allowing adults to possess an ounce of pot for recreational use would pump more than $400 million into the city's coffers.
Daily Hampshire Gazette: Tax-free weekends are bad economic policy and send wrong message
August 14, 2013
It troubles me that we marched on to last weekend's "tax-free holiday" with so little thinking about the folly and hypocrisies of such a "gift" from the Legislature.
Ballard News-Tribune: Tarleton addresses transportation, environment, revenue
August 14, 2013
"It is absolutelly regressive, in every which way, with any economist," she said of Washington's tax system. At the beginning of this year, The Washington D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) released a report crowning Washington state with the most regressive tax system.
The Middletown Press: States could see millions more in tax revenues with immigration reform
August 14, 2013
Throughout the past year, Connecticut was faced with tough choices in passing its budget, and it was forced to do so with tens of millions of dollars less in tax revenue than the state would have had if its undocumented immigrants had been part of the mainstream population.
Tax Expenditure Reports: A Vital Tool with Room for Improvement
August 14, 2013 • By Carl Davis
State and local tax codes include a huge array of special tax breaks designed to accomplish almost every goal imaginable: from encouraging homeownership and scientific research, to building radioactive fallout shelters and caring for "exceptional" trees. Despite being embedded in the tax code, these programs are typically enacted with tax policy issues like fairness, efficiency, and sustainability only as secondary considerations. Accordingly, these programs have long been called "tax expenditures." They are essentially government spending programs that happen to be housed in the tax code for ease of administration, political expedience, or both.
Tax Incentives: Costly for States, Drag on the Nation
August 14, 2013 • By Carl Davis
Tax incentives are intended to spur economic growth that would not have otherwise occurred. More specifically, these narrowly targeted tax breaks are usually offered in an attempt to convince businesses to relocate, hire, and/or invest within a state's borders.
Open Sky Policy Institute: Analysis shows large chunk of income-tax cut would leave Nebraska
August 12, 2013
Ahead of Tuesday’s Tax Modernization Committee meeting on the state’s corporate and personal individual income taxes, OpenSky commissioned the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) to forecast a hypothetical scenario in which the state cuts its top income tax rate to 5 percent. The analysis showed about 40 percent of the tax cut […]
Georgia Budget & Policy Institute: Tax Shift Plans Threaten Georgia’s Future
August 12, 2013
Despite support from powerful out-of-state interests, tax shift plans are misguided roadmaps for change. Georgia’s lawmakers should ignore the siren’s call and firmly reject the fringe, copycat idea during its likely appearance in the 2014 legislative session that begins in January. Read the Full Report (PDF)
The Boston Globe: Tax break is no holiday for Mass.
August 12, 2013
(Original Post) By Tom Keane | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT AUGUST 06, 2013 THERE ARE certain things our elected officials do that make easy pickings for a columnist, and right at the top of the list is the Bay State’s annual sales tax holiday. (Make that mostly annual; we skipped 2009). As July waned, the […]
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