Nick Johnson

Areas of Expertise

Local Policy State Taxes

Nick serves as a Senior Fellow with ITEP’s state and local policy teams. He brings three decades of expertise in state and local tax policy to advance economic justice and sustainable public finance. Most recently, he led the District of Columbia Tax Revision Commission as Executive Director, where he guided the independent, decennial commission’s comprehensive review of D.C.’s tax system through the development of dozens of policy reforms, several of which have already been enacted into law.

Prior to these roles, Nick worked at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), most recently as Senior Vice President for State Fiscal Policy. There he built and led a team of over 40 professionals working to expand economic opportunity and reduce poverty through state-level policy reform. His team’s accomplishments included helping to establish and expand state Earned Income Tax Credits that now provide $4 billion in annual support to 11 million working families, and securing billions in new state tax revenue through the creation of broader, fairer state tax bases to fund essential services.

A recognized expert in fiscal policy, Nick has played a crucial role in major federal initiatives, including securing $165 billion in state funding through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and $350 billion in the 2021 American Rescue Plan. He also pioneered CBPP’s State Policy Fellows program, which has launched over 50 young leaders, primarily people of color, into policy careers.

Nick’s background includes service as a Professional Staff Member for the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, where he worked on economic development and welfare reform. Earlier in his career, he worked as a journalist reporting for the City News Bureau in Chicago and The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Nick holds a Master of Public Policy from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Yale University. He serves on several boards, including the Washington Area Bicyclist Association and Duke University’s M.P.P. Alumni Advisory Board. His expertise is frequently sought by national media, and he regularly advises state and federal policymakers on fiscal policy matters.