Real Change: Fishing for Equity in a Regressive Tax System
media mention“It’s always about race, and it’s always about taxes,” said Misha Hill, a policy analyst with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). ITEP is the source of the frequently cited statistic that Washington has the most regressive tax system in the country.
In fact, Hill said, there are no states in the union that have a truly progressive taxation system — Washington just happens to be the worst. While states lean heavily on regressive sales taxes and property taxes, the federal tax system is actually successful at redistributing wealth from top earners to low-income people.