1,134 posts
North Carolina Tax and Budget Center: BTC REPORTS: Doubling Down on a Losing Strategy – More Income Tax Cuts Will Grow Budget Shortfalls, Not the Economy
• By ITEP Staff
North Carolina policymakers have proposed another round of income tax cuts on top of those they passed in 2013. Senate Bill 526 would cost at least $1.4 billion by 2017, causing a new wave of cuts to services North Carolinians rely on each day and compounding the problems created by the tax cuts passed two […]
North Carolina Budget and Tax Center: FACTSHEET: Keep Arbitrary Tax & Spending Limits Out of North Carolina – Vote No on Senate Bill 607
• By ITEP Staff
A suite of severe changes to the state constitution laid out in Senate Bill 607 would undermine the foundations of the North Carolina economy and make our current challenges much worse. The bill changes the state constitution in three ways: 1. Limits spending on education, health, and other services through a rigid, arbitrary, and fundamentally […]
North Carolina Budget and Tax Center: BTC REPORTS: Diminished Expectations and the Resulting Drag on NC’s Economy – A Summary of the 2015-17 Budget
• By ITEP Staff
The budget North Carolina will live under through June of 2017 will sharply constrain the state’s ability to make public investments crucial to promoting widespread prosperity and a growing economy. Read the full report here
New Jersey Policy Perspective: Executive Actions on Immigration Would Help Many New Jerseyans While Boosting the Economy
• By ITEP Staff
President Obama’s 2014 executive actions on immigration would benefit hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans and provide a boost to the state’s economy by allowing many undocumented residents to work legally and avoid deportation. Read the full report here
New Jersey Policy Perspective: Levied on Very Few, New Jersey’s Estate and Inheritance Taxes Support Colleges, Health Care & Other Services
• By ITEP Staff
An effort by some lawmakers to eliminate or drastically cut taxes for a small number of New Jerseyans – a move that would deliver the greatest benefit to the state’s wealthiest households – threatens resources needed for public colleges, safe communities, health care and other important services. Read the full report here
Georgia Budget and Policy Institute: A Tax Blueprint to Strengthen Georgia
• By ITEP Staff
Reforming Georgia’s rickety tax code is once again a hot topic among members of the General Assembly, and the question lawmakers must answer is how best to do it. The most prominent pending reform option would slash Georgia’s top personal income tax rate and try to make up the lost revenue with increased sales taxes, […]
A Primer on State Rainy Day Funds
• By Aidan Davis
Read the Report in PDF Form An individual savings account can serve as an emergency reserve – a financial cushion to sustain yourself in the event of an emergency. “Rainy day” funds are much like individual saving accounts, but on a statewide scale. Lawmakers use rainy day funds to set aside state tax revenue during […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Statement on Gov. LePage’s Proposal to Seek a Ballot Initiative to Reduce Maine’s Income Tax to 4 Percent by 2021
• By ITEP Staff
The non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that Mainers with annual income above $175,000 would receive almost 50 percent of the benefits from this massive tax cut. The top 1 percent of Mainers with income greater than $390,000 would get an average tax cut of over $21,000 while the 20 percent of Mainers […]
State Tax Codes As Poverty Fighting Tools
• By Aidan Davis, Meg Wiehe
The U.S. Census Bureau released data in September showing that the share of Americans living in poverty remains high. In 2014, the national poverty rate was 14.8 percent - statistically unchanged from the previous year. However, the poverty rate remains 2.3 percentage points higher than it was in 2007, before the Great Recession, indicating that recent economic gains have not yet reached all households and that there is much room for improvement. The 2014 measure…
Rewarding Work Through State Earned Income Tax Credits
• By Aidan Davis, Lisa Christensen Gee, Meg Wiehe
Despite some economic gains in recent years, the number of Americans living in poverty has held steady over the past four years. At the same time, wages for working families have remained stagnant and more than half of the jobs created by the economic recovery since 2010 were low-paying, mostly in the food services, retail, and employment services industries. Our country's growing class of low-wage workers often faces a dual challenge as they struggle to…
Low Tax for Whom?: Tennessee is a “Low Tax State” Overall, But Not for Families Living in Poverty
• By Meg Wiehe
Annual data from the U.S. Census Bureau appear to lend support to Tennessee's reputation as a "low tax state," ranking it 50th nationally in taxes collected as a share of personal income.1 But focusing on the state's overall tax revenues has led many observers to overlook the fact that different taxpayers experience Tennessee's tax system very differently. In particular, the poorest 20 percent of Tennessee residents pay significantly more of their income (10.9 percent) in…
Low Tax for Whom?: South Dakota is a “Low Tax State” Overall, But Not for Families Living in Poverty
• By Meg Wiehe
Annual data from the U.S. Census Bureau appear to lend support to South Dakota's reputation as a "low tax state," ranking it 51st nationally in taxes collected as a share of personal income, the lowest overall tax state.1 But focusing on the state's overall tax revenues has led many observers to overlook the fact that different taxpayers experience South Dakota's tax system very differently. In particular, the poorest 20 percent of South Dakota residents pay…
Low Tax for Whom?: Washington is a “Low Tax State” Overall, But Not for Families Living in Poverty
• By Meg Wiehe
Annual data from the U.S. Census Bureau appear to lend support to Washington's reputation as a "low tax state," ranking it 36th nationally in taxes collected as a share of personal income.1 But focusing on the state's overall tax revenues has led many observers to overlook the fact that different taxpayers experience Washington's tax system very differently. In particular, the poorest 20 percent of Washington residents pay significantly more of their income (16.8 percent) in…
Low Tax for Whom?: Florida is a “Low Tax State” Overall, But Not for Families Living in Poverty
• By Meg Wiehe
Annual data from the U.S. Census Bureau appear to lend support to Florida's reputation as a "low tax state," ranking it 48th nationally in taxes collected as a share of personal income.1 But focusing on the state's overall tax revenues has led many observers to overlook the fact that different taxpayers experience Florida's tax system very differently. In particular, the poorest 20 percent of Florida residents pay significantly more of their income (12.9 percent) in…
Low Tax for Whom?: Texas is a “Low Tax State” Overall, But Not for Families Living in Poverty
• By Meg Wiehe
Annual data from the U.S. Census Bureau appear to lend support to Texas' reputation as a "low tax state," ranking it 39th nationally in taxes collected as a share of personal income.1 But focusing on the state's overall tax revenues has led many observers to overlook the fact that different taxpayers experience Texas' tax system very differently. In particular, the poorest 20 percent of Texans pay significantly more of their income (12.5 percent) in state…
Low Tax for Whom?: Arizona is a “Low Tax State” Overall, But Not for Families Living in Poverty
• By Meg Wiehe
Annual data from the U.S. Census Bureau appears to lend support to Arizona's reputation as a "low tax state," ranking it 37th nationally in taxes collected as a share of personal income.1 But focusing on the state's overall tax revenues has led many observers to overlook the fact that different taxpayers experience Arizona's tax system very differently. In particular, the poorest 20 percent of Arizona residents pay significantly more of their income (12.5 percent) in…
Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center: Funding Improvements for Schools, Roads, and Public Transit with Tax Reforms that Improve Fairness
• By ITEP Staff
We can expand opportunity for our people and strengthen our economy by making smart investments to improve our schools; make our colleges and universities affordable; and build a transportation system that gets families, students, workers and customers to the places they need to be. There are fair and effective ways that we could pay for […]
Connecticut Voices for Children: Impact of the Final FY 2016 Budget on Children and Families
• By ITEP Staff
The State of Connecticut’s final FY 16 budget, improved from earlier proposals, still balances on children and families’ finite resources, this analysis finds. While funding the “Children’s Budget” – state spending on children and family services – requires only a third of overall state funding, children’s program funding reductions account for nearly ninety percent of […]
Sales Tax Holidays: An Ineffective Alternative to Real Sales Tax Reform
• By Lisa Christensen Gee
Lawmakers in many states have enacted "sales tax holidays" (at least 17 states will hold them in 2015), to provide a temporary break on paying the tax on purchases of clothing, computers and other items. While these holidays may seem to lessen the regressive impacts of the sales tax, their benefits are minimal. This policy brief examines the many problems associated with sales tax holidays and concludes that they have more political than policy benefits.
New Jersey Policy Perspective: Increasing the EITC Would Boost New Jersey’s Working Families
• By ITEP Staff
Increasing New Jersey’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to 30 percent from 20 percent of the federal EITC would provide over half a million New Jersey working families with a much-needed bump in their take-home pay while giving the state’s economy a boost. But the economic impact of the EITC goes beyond the specific amount […]
Pay-Per-Mile Tax is Only a Partial Fix
• By Carl Davis
Read this report in PDF form Introduction For years, academics and transportation experts have been discussing the possibility of taxing drivers for each mile they travel on the nation’s roads. This “vehicle miles traveled tax” (VMT tax) could either supplement or replace the existing gas tax as the primary method of funding transportation infrastructure. To […]
Policy Matters Ohio: Ohio Senate Flat Tax Mandate is Unwise and Unwarranted
• By ITEP Staff
The Senate budget bill approved Thursday, like the House-approved version, would create a tax policy study commission to review the state’s tax structure. But the Senate would require the study commission to make recommendations “on how to transition Ohio’s personal income tax to a flat tax of three and one-half percent or three and three-quarters […]
Testimony: Adding Sustainability to the Highway Trust Fund
• By Carl Davis
The federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) is the single most important mechanism for funding maintenance and improvements to the nation's transportation infrastructure. Absent Congressional action, however, the HTF will face insolvency at the end of July. Unfortunately, despite the critical importance of infrastructure to the U.S. economy, the condition of the HTF has been allowed to deteriorate to the point that imminent insolvency has become entirely normal.
Local Progress: Progressive Policies for Raising Municipal Revenue
• By ITEP Staff
This report lays out a set of policy and political interventions that cities, regions, and states can make to increase municipal revenue and to make their collections more progressive. Cities have historically suffered enormous budget shortfalls and after the Great Recession, available funds depleted even more drastically. Read the full report here.
NC Policy Watch: The Senate Tax Plan Fails to Fix the Problem
• By ITEP Staff
Last week, we raised concerns with the Senate leadership’s new tax plan. Rather than reinvesting and regaining ground lost in recent years, the Senate is pursuing another round of costly income tax cuts. When fully implemented, the $1 billion price tag for the Senate tax plan will mean North Carolina must forgo investments in the foundations […]
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